The Sexual Instinct and its Morbid Manifestations from the Double Standpoint of Jurisprudence and Psychiatry/Group A. Perversion of the Genesic Instinct Based on Hereditary Infirmity

I. CONGENITAL CONTRARY-SEXUAL FEELING (CONGENITAL PEDERASTY)
JUST as children may be born with abnormally constituted extremities, trunk, head or other members, a congenital tendency may in like manner appear towards perverse modes of manifestation of the genesic instinct.

As in a physical cripple the whole organism may be more or less normally developed, apart from the particular abnormality, so in a moral abortion the psychical constitution may be more or less normal, with the exception of the particular perversion present. The irregular or faulty development of the nervous centres may present a particular character, by reason of which a functional disturbance caused thereby may be limited to any particular domain, that for instance of sexual activity.

But the faulty development of certain nervous centres is not without influence on the development of the others. It is generally possible to recognize in an abortion, notwithstanding the more or less regular constitution of the non-affected parts of the body, a number of slight deviations and irregularities which, if not apparent on a superficial view, are nevertheless discovered by careful examination. In the same way where there is congenital disturbance in limited nervous centres, it has a certain influence upon the whole of the nervous system, which shows itself in certain hardly perceptible irregularities. In order therefore to obtain a general view of the anomaly in question with all the irregularities connected with it, it is necessary to follow up its general development from its very first manifestations.

The child born with congenital sexual perversion grows up and develops to all appearance quite regularly in every way. The genesic sense alone generally awakens unusually early and, as the period of sexual maturity approaches, a whole series of abnormal morbid manifestations show themselves. The first of these symptoms is an expression of shame, not before girls or women, but in presence of grown-up men. For instance, the boy is more ashamed to undress himself before a strange man, than before a woman. On the other hand he prefers the company and caresses of men to those of women. He feels a great attachment to a man, follows him about incessantly, obeys him without a murmur, is charmed with him in one word, he " adores " a man, either a brave, generous and clever man or one with strongly developed muscles, whilst he remains quite indifferent towards women. At length he attains puberty; in the night he often has violent erections with emission of semen. The pollutions are accompanied by dreams, at first indetermined, easily forgotten; but they each time become more distinct, decided and often astonish the youth himself by their strange nature. They are not female caresses nor meetings with women that appear to him in his dreams, but the pressure of the hand, the kiss of well-built, handsome grown-up men. The final erection ending with seminal emission is not provoked in dream by a female form in seductive attitudes and movements, but by the embracing, caresses and kisses of men.

Not only does the representation of womanly form give rise to no sexual excitation, but it paralyzes all voluptuous feeling, when such exists already. Among normally constituted men the heat of sexual erethism rapidly disappears at the sight of grown-up men. On the contrary this same erethism is quenched at once in the congenital pederast in the presence of women. The sight of a naked young woman leaves him indifferent, whereas that of a naked man will awaken in him feelings of lust.

From books and conversation with his comrades he discovers that something quite unusual and abnormal is taking place within him. But the strangeness to him of the phenomenon itself, the difficulty of giving it a distinct form, and his ever increasing shyness when in company with men, cause the youth to dissimulate his misfortune. Sometimes, incited thereto by companions of his age, he ventures to share the couch of some girl and to accomplish the act of manhood, but each time the effort fails and is not seldom followed by a hysterical fit.

Just as a normally constituted and sexually developed man, try as he may, cannot feel any lustful desire for another man, so it is equally impossible for the congental pederast to accomplish coition with a woman. Such fruitless endeavours serve only to still more discourage the young man and finally inspire him with a disgust for women. He now seeks the companionship of men, pays court to them, falls in love with them, and in the meantime seeks for satisfaction in onanism.

In consequence of the congenital morbid erethism, the so-called excitable weakness of the nervous system, the feelings of lubricity become soon intensified to their utmost, and often find in the simple physical contact with the beloved person the determination of an emissio seminis. The love of such subjects is extraordinarily violent, morbidly passionate, absorbs all their moral and sensitive faculties, and is at first purely Platonic; it is only later on that the sexual feeling and its con- sequent genesic impulse finds satisfaction in mutual masturbation or in onanistic excitation of the adored person. Finally, when the latter consents to it, or because he wishes to satisfy his lust otherwise, the act of sodomy is consummated, in which the morbidly dis- posed participator always plays the part of the passive pederast.

Concurrently with the exaggeration of sexual perversion just described, other peculiarities

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of the sick organism begin to show them- selves. The youth is impelled to give himself a feminine appearance, likes to wear female attire, to have his hair curled, to walk about with exposed neck, and tightened waist, to scent, powder and rouge the face, to paint the eyebrows, etc. In this way is developed a type of womanish-looking men, disgusting to those of their own sex and looked upon with contempt by women, and whom it is easy to recognize by their appearance. They are generally of middle-sized or slight build, with broad hips and narrow shoulders, affect- ing a feminine walk and a peculiar swinging gait ; with perfumed locks, eccentric dress, bracelets on their wrists, they seek by every means, laughing, talking and gesticulation, to draw the attention of men to themselves. The unhappy creature cannot realize, parti- cularly if there is a relatively weak develop- ment of his understanding, that he is so much the more repugnant to normally consti- tuted men the more he seeks to imitate a woman. At once fantastical, even to hysteria, envious, cowardly, mean, revengeful and spiteful, he combines in himself all the faults of the woman, without any of her qualities, and possesses none of the attractive traits of

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the manly character. He is therefore de- spicable alike to men and women.

Many such sufferers willingly acknowledge their abnormal condition which they endeavour to explain to themselves. "I have a female soul in a man's body," wrote K. H. Ulrichs, 1 who has written quite a series of treatises, which, although very interesting as the detailed confessions of a psychopathic subject, are at the same without order and too long drawn out, as is the case with most of the same class of works.

It often happens that such patients feel depressed in mind by the knowledge of their infirmity and of their inability to fight against it. In this connection, a letter, kindly com- municated to us by Professor J. Mierzejewsky, is of great interest. It is to the following effect : " .... To speak frankly, I am even here, far away, exposed to temptations, against which I am defenceless, and I do not really know what it means ; malady, or the power of youthful impressions, or want of will, against which I have been fighting in vain for more than four years or an unlucky

1 Numa Numantins, Anthropologische Studien iiber die mannmannliche Geschlechtsliebe, etc. (Anthropological Studies of Sexual Love as between Man and Man), Leipzig, 1869.

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nature, a fatal destiny, or else an instinct that death only can cure?! That is why I at times brood on the thought of some rapid and painless poison, for in truth this instinct is in contradiction with my judgment. . . ."

A few months before his marriage with a charming girl, a patient of mine wrote to me as follows: "I am a slave to my fatal passion, I cannot abandon vice and I am not able to love Friiulein X . . ., although I feel that it is only with her that I could be happy. In her absence, I love her under- standing, her soul, her visage even ; but when I see her, I feel that I should not be in a condition to become her husband .... It would be the greatest of misfortunes. Up to the present I have never been able to have intercourse with women with her it will be the same thing . . . There remains for me nothing but death, if your help proves to be powerless . . . "

Sometimes the patient, perpetually tortured by jealousy of women because of their success with men, feels despair on account of his mostly unsuccessful loves, often repulsed with contempt, in a fit of melancholy takes his own life or, sinking deeper and deeper, he

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confines himself to the narrow circle of a few fellow-sufferers, and terminates his exist- ence in a half stupid condition. Otherwise he may become the victim of one form or another of acute mania, if his miserable existence is not previously put an end to by some other accidental malady. The type here described combines in it the principal characteristics of the congenital pederast as most frequently met with.

However, there are others again who, in their efforts to ape the fair sex, adopt more eccentric forms. So, for instance, Taylor 1 in this connection has written a most impor- tant observation, emboding his description of the celebrated English actress and advent- uress Elisa Edwards who, after her death, was discovered to have been a man in dis- guise. From his earliest youth he felt an inclination for men, from the age of 14 wore female clothing, went on the stage, had many amorous adventures, lived as a Mistress, and used to fasten up his genitals, which were quite normally developed, to his body by a special bandage, so as not to be recognized.

Notwithstanding the clear, explicit expres- sion of the inclination to copy the female

1 Medic. Jurisprudence, 1873. Vol. II, pp. 286 and 473.

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sex in the above case, the sexual perversity implied differs really in no respect from that exhibited by the previously described type of the born passive pederast, or so-called u Cy- nede *.

But besides such cases as this, there exist other intermediate forms occurring under cir- cumstances to be presently defined, morbid aberrations now more, now less, strongly marked, which form a gradual transition to obvious forms of hereditary mental derange- ment.

In the weaker defined manifestations the boy or youth exhibits only his predisposition to occupy himself with feminine work He likes to knit, to sew, to make doll's clothes; otherwise he distinguishes himself by his peculiar preference for feminine manners, he strives to be graceful and coquettish in his demeanour, imitates the tone and voice -of a woman, etc,, and is awkward and out of his element and blushes when in conversation with men. On the contrary, he is quite free from embarrassment in the company of young girls, is glad to take the woman's part in dancing, always choosing for cavalier a vigo- rous, stalwart manly dancer, becoming quite enlivened and merry, when he has found a

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man to his taste, or else growing confused and troubled at his sight and running away like a timid little girl.

Another occupies all his leisure time before the looking-glass ; combs his hair, puts on curl-papers, paints his face, adorns his per- son, studying in the most serious fashion what is becoming to him and what is not. He has a wonderful remembrance of the most complicated female toilettes, and is able to describe them in all their details; in this matter he exhibits a quite delicate taste, but shows himself absolutely wanting in taste when he adopts male attire. He either sports a too violently coloured neck-tie, or he ex- poses his neck so low, that it appears extra- vagantly exaggerated, even for a woman; or else he has his hair curled in long locks, and covers his fingers with rings and puts brace- lets upon his wrists.

In other less decided forms, the sexual instinct is more frequently and particularly determined by the surrounding circumstances. When the parents or the instructors of such morbid subjects fail to comprehend the signi- fication of the above-described manifestations, give them only a frivolous consideration, and even for fun encourage such feminine instincts,

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the inevitable result is that the morbidly disposed youth generally becomes an onanist, not feeling attracted towards the female sex, from which he more and more estranges himself, and finally on favourable occasion becomes a pederast, although, at first, he still possessed the power of sexual intercourse with women.

The more intense the morbid manifestation, the longer has the subject been addicted to masturbation, and the sooner has he become a pederast, and the sooner also does he lose the possibility of normal coition.

Yet more fatal in its effects upon subjects that way disposed is the companionship of similar morbidly affected comrades, in a still more advanced pathological condition, as often occurs in schools. By the example of elder comrades the boy early becomes a pederast and consequently at the advent of puberty his morbidly diminished desire for the female sex is still more accentuated.

Under more favourable circumstances the case has a more satisfactory culmination.

When the boy has been repressed in time, and laughed at on the first feminine imitations, he involuntarily begins to pull himself together. If he is then carefully kept away from female

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society, occupied as much ns possible with athletic exercises, always severely reproved and punished for the slightest appearance of coquetry, graceful manner, extravagant deli- cacy and in general for every external feminine manifestation, by such strictly conducted edu- cation the youth attains to the normal state of puberty.

The morbidly diminished sexual inclination towards the female sex that is congenitally pre- sent, and the weakened and perverted genesic instinct the consequence of bad surroundings and education cause the youth in this initial period of his life to be more indifferent to sexual enjoyment than are his comrades of the same age. It frequently happens that, when he has come to manhood, after violent erethism or repeated pollutions, his first attempts at sexual intercourse with women are abortive; or that, notwithstanding their successful accomplishment, he has not found therein the same enjoyment a normally con- stituted being would.

However, if he perseveres in having regular intercourse, particularly with one and the same person, the genesic perversion gradually dies out, and finally the youth who from his birth was disposed to perversion of sexual

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instinct, grows up to be a man endowed with normal genital functions, and fit to fulfil the duties of the head of a family.

Another variety of these morbid manifesta- tions consists in those cases, in which the touching of the hind-quarters determines a sexual erethism, the gratification of which is not perverse and can happen normally. Some- times the boy notices in quite early youth, that slight strokes on his naked posteriors caused him an agreeable sensation. 1 He then voluntarily seeks, in play, in joke, or even as a punishment to get a few strokes. When this particular predisposition is not taken notice of, the strokes, especially those of the birch, awaken erotic excitement in the boy. Later on he fustigates himself, when he is alone, and the erethism culminates in onanism. When the period of manhood arrives, if the vicious habit, of seeking excitation in flagellation, that is to say by strokes with a birch on the posteriors, has become deep- rooted, the patient is only then able to have intercourse with women, after having been flogged previously, which for ever deprives him of the possibility of family life, and necessarily reduces him to the extremity of

1 J. J. Rousseau, Lcs Confessions, Partie I, Livre I.

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having recourse to masturbation or to the exclusive frequentation of prostitutes, women who sell their favours. Under such conditions the vicious propensity is still further developed. Strokes alone, even when followed by blood, are not sufficient for the patient ; he requires a certain amount of violence to be exercised upon him. He must be undressed brutally, or his wrists are to be tied together, he must be fastened down to a bench, etc., during which he makes a pretence of resistance, shouts and swears. It is only by such means and flogging with birch rods that he succeeds in obtaining that degree of sexual excitation which ends in emissio seminis. In this morbid period he seldom goes as far as actual coition, more frequently the semen is expended even without erection At last the patient loses altogether the faculty of performing the genesic function in a normal manner, and gradually is developed in him the predispo- sition to graver forms of nervous and mental disease.

It goes without saying that, when the morbid propensity is discovered early, and abnormal excitement by touching of the pos- teriors is carefully avoided, the period of puberty is thereby retarded as much as possible, and

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the efforts to overcome the congenital infirmity become more easy and more successful.

Besides the weak congenital forms, which indicate a more or less slight disposition to pederasty, there are other more violent forms, happily less common, which show a gradual transition to complete madness. Many of these subjects find their first feelings of lust excited by the sight of a naked man, particu- larly of his posteriors or the orificium ani. Dr. Albert mentions for instance cases, in which certain schoolmasters whipped their pupils without any cause, the sight of the naked buttocks of the children producing in them a state of sensual excitement which they then satisfied by masturbation. ]

When such subjects give themselves up early to masturbation, they seek to excite themselves by touching or rubbing against the posteriors of men, on which occasions there is often an emission of semen. They have also nocturnal pollutions accompanied by dream-pictures in which naked men with strongly developed hind-quarters play the principal part. Such subjects are born active pederasts; they are always indifferent to women, have no feminine propensities, but

1 Albert, Friedreich's Blatter, 1859, III, p. 77.

generally exhibit, besides their sexual perver- sion, other morbid symptoms as well, indi- cating a greater or less degree of degeneracy. Some display from infancy an inclination to objectless thievery; others are subject to epileptic fits, with temporary loss of con- sciousness; others again are afflicted with intellectual dulness, are soon fatigued by any mental labour, are slow to understand things, have a poor memory, and so forth.

On proceeding one step further in psy- chical degeneracy, we come to subjects who have an exclusive taste for old men. Many born pederasts feel attracted only by men with gray beards. For them neither youth, nor elegance of bodily form, nor beauty, whether in woman or in man, is of any importance; their sexual instinct can only be excited by the aspect of a gray beard, some- times indeed by the ugliest face, rendered repulsive by deformity.

Another degree of this congenital perversion is manifested by individuals in whom the sexual excitement is produced by the aspect of lifeless objects which have no connection whatever with the sexual act. Cases are known, in which the sight of a nightcap on the head of a man, or of a woman, has caused

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this erethism with emission of semen. The view of a naked woman or man left the subject indifferent, but the remembrance of a nightcap, particularly if on the head of an old shrivelled-up woman, or the touch of a nightcap, caused immediate erection and even emission.

Another unhappy patient had from early youth been in the habit of directing his atten- tion to the nails in the shoes of women. The contemplation of such shoe-nails procured him particular pleasure; during the night he would get up, secretly seek out such shoes, count the nails and, lying afterwards in his bed, would give himself up to all sorts of phantastic ideas, in which the benailed shoes led him to erection and precocious onanism. Later on the mere sight of a cobbler hammering nails into the soles of the patient's own boots was sufficient to cause him to emit semen without erection.

In a third case the first sexual erethism was caused by the sight of a white apron hung out to dry in the sun. He took the apron down, hung it before him, and com- menced masturbating. From that moment the sight of a white apron always caused him erethism. It was, however, indifferent whether

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the apron was worn by a man or by a woman, or whether it hung on a clothes-line, the sight of the apron invariably awakened in him the irrepressible wish to seize it and masturbate himself with it.

After he had been several times punished for stealing aprons, he entered a monastery, where he sought of his own accord to con- quer his flesh by fasting and prayer, but he was not able to become master of his passion, and the remembrance of white aprons was sufficient to make him fall back into his vice. l

Another experienced violent lust, terminat- ing in spasmodic erection, when his genitals came into contact with fur, which occurred by accident, when he happened one night to cover himself with a fur rug. From that time from the age of twelve he was given to masturbation. The sight of the body of a man or of that of a woman, even during copulation, would not excite him in the least, but to touch a hairy little dog, which he sometimes took into his bed, always caused him erection, ending in emission : this was sometimes followed by a hysterical attack, accompanied by convulsions, sobbing, etc.

1 Charcot ct Magnan, Inversion du sens genital. Arch, de Neurologic, 1882.

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UN nocturnal pollutions were accompanied l>y dreams, in which neither men nor women played a part ; he used to dream, that he was stn-tched naked upon a soft fur, that every point of his body pressed amorously to it, and this sensation led to erection and pollu- tion. As he grew older, and became aware of his morbid condition, he was at times in actual despair and was often on the point of committing suicide.

He was very soon fatigued by mental work, and failed in his examinations at the Uni- versity ; his memory became much impaired ; it always seemed to him as if his comrades regarded him in a peculiar manner and de- spised him. It was this last that troubled him most. He used to enquire, if it were possible to recognize his condition by the expression of his eyes? if there existed no means, by the absorption of remedies, to dis- simulate his situation from " them " ? He would cry, and sob, suffered terribly, praying to be saved from himself. a Should I find out, that 'they' guess what is going on within me, I would most certainly kill my- self. * These were his parting words at our last interview. Evidently the mania of being persecuted was already developing itself

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in him. As I was subsequently informed, he was a few months later placed in a lunatic asylum.

This patient exhibited degeneracy to a high degree. His genitals were irregularly devel- oped, and in the bony structure of his body there were distinctly marked malformations. But similarly, in all previously cited cases, there had always been observed, besides a high degree of perversion of the sexual instinct, other manifestations as well, which indicated an abnormal development of the nervous system caused by degeneracy. Symptoms were always present of a morbid, or degenerate constitution of the nervous system.

The nightcap patient had at times halluci- nations ; he was inclined to melancholy and had repeatedly manifested the intention of poisoning himself. The patient whose erethism was excited by the sight of shoe-nails had also fits of hysteria, of hypochondria, and was subject to hallucinations, and so forth. The amateur of white aprons was from his youth inclined to theft and had but a shallow understanding; he was later on subject to fits of melancholy with ideas of suicide. There were at the same time physical symp- toms of degeneracy: the skull was irregularly

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formed and modified in a characteristic manner.

Dr. Krauss l mentions a similar obser- vation, where stealing was not for a criminal object, but served merely to satisfy a perverted sexual instinct. This observation is borrowed from Eulenberg l and concerns a subject 45 years of age, of a hasty, spiteful character. u Often there came over him he knew not what; his head would then become heavy, hot and as if ready to burst; he could neither think nor work, and felt forced to run about like a dog. In such moments he felt an irresistible impulse to steal women's wash- linen, wherever he could find any. He was never troubled by the fear of being caught; besides, he never stole other things or money. He used to put the linen on him, sometimes in the day-time, but more often at night he would lie in bed with them on. Putting them on and wearing them excited voluptuous feelings in him, and his semen was emitted involuntarily.

" . . . . He never sold or gave away a single one of the stolen articles, but preserved them

1 A. Krauss, Die Psychologie des Verbrechens (Psychology of Crime), Tubingen, 1884, p. 190.

B Eulenberg, Vierteljahresschr. f. Gerichtl. Med. (Quarterly Journal of Forensic Medicine), 1878, Bd. 28.

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all in cupboards and trunks, even in his mattress and in other hiding-places. When he was arrested he wore several articles of female clothing and had a woman's shift next to his body. In his lodging were found above all in particular women's drawers and chemises, also corsets, bodices, stockings, handkerchiefs, in all 300 articles/ In any case he never stole the linen of young women or girls with whom he was acquainted; he never knew to whom the linen belonged that he stole. His sexual instinct tended solely towards the female sex. Every other genesic aberration appears to have been absent: onanism, pederasty, lasciviousness in company with young lads. But the sexual desire for women, for natural sexual satisfaction, was also absent. He further admits, that for a long time past he has had no connection with women, but asserts himself to have been formerly able to accomplish copulation. Some years ago he was engaged to be married, but the match was broken off by the parents of the bride, which had greatly dis- tressed him.

In connection with this an observation by Diez 1 may be added, relating to a boy, who

1 E. A. Diez, Der Selbstmord (Suicide), 1838, p. 24.

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felt an irresistible impulse to tear female clothing, which on each occasion was followed by emission of semen.

A very well studied example from the etiological point of view of congenital per- version of the sexual instinct is one lately furnished by Professor Lombroso, who relates the following case of a lad of 20 years of age who had a hereditary psychopathic ten- dency from his ancestors in the ascending line; his grandfather died insane, his mother suffered from sick headaches, he has a sister who is hysterical, a brother of his stutters, and one of his cousins is half an idiot.

With such predispositions already, the patient had also hurt his head in childhood, and it pained him for a long time afterwards ; he had also from youth up been subject to intercostal pains and pains in the hips. From his third or fourth year he had like- wise been subject to erections and violent sexual excitation at the sight of white objects, for instance even white walls, but particularly of linen hanging out to dry. The touch or the sound of the crumpling of linen would awaken lustful sensations in him. Ever since his ninth or tenth year he had masturbated himself at the sight of white starched linen.

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Though he possessed well-developed faculties and the desire to learn, he left school at nine years of age, stole money from his parents, several times set their house on fire, was repeatedly taken up for fighting in the streets and for carrying weapons, and was finally condemned to death for murder. 1

It is easy to understand how the further degrees of degeneracy, besides distinctly deter- mined psychical and physical abnormities, may also present still more degraded forms of sexual perversion, for instance the impulse to martyrize his victims, to wound them, to see their blood flow, or the desire to violate little children. At the same time the lust finds complete satiety only in murdering, or disfiguring the victim, in swallowing morsels of the victim's flesh, or in accomplishing the genesic act upon the corpse.

In this connection there are two observations of the greatest interest by Demme, 2 because they present two different grades of the same sexual perversion.

The first observation is the following: Carl Bartle, a wine-merchant in Augsburg,

1 Lombroso, Amori anomali e precoci nei pazzie. Arch.di psich. sc. pen. etc., 1883, IV, p. 17.

8 See Krauss, Psychol. des Verbrechens (Psychology of Crime), p. 183.

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37 years old, had never in his life had con- nection with women ; on the contrary, had always felt a repulsion to them. And yet the sexual instinct was very strong in him. In his 19th year he was for the first time assailed by an invincible impulse to slightly wound young girls, from which he seemed to derive a sort of sexual gratification. He therefore slightly wounded several girls and each time had an emission of semen. But after each such act he would reproach him- self for it, felt a sort of remorse and formed the resolve to conquer this impulse.

At first he limited himself to giving them little cuts, taking care not to wound the girls seriously; later he felt impelled to squeeze the arms or the throats of the girls he met. But this did not suffice to satisfy the sexual impulse ; it procured him erection, it is true, but no emission. More serious woundings became necessary. He began to prick his victims with a stiletto. Curiously enough, if the girl's clothing had protected her body from the wound, he always knew that his attempt had been unsuccessful, for he then had no emission of semen.

At the same time the wounding must not be dangerous; he was too religious for that.

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But he chose his victims solely among pretty girls ; he spared older women altogether. He never gave himself up to onanism, although his nocturnal dreams of wounded girls led to emissions.

In his house was found a collection of finely worked stilettos, sword-canes, poniards, hunting-knives, etc., concerning which he said that for a long time past he had felt a great desire to possess such weapons. The mere sight of them, and still more the feeling of naked, smooth steel blades aroused voluptu- ous feelings in him which were accompanied by violent erections.

According to the information given by his acquaintances, he was a man of very quiet character, was fond of solitude and always shunned the society of females. His appear- ance was agreeable, and he was in comfortable circumstances.

It was found that prior to his arrest he had committed 50 attacks on young girls. Besides the stiletto, he also used as weapons lancets and embroidery needles.

The second observation of Demme l relates to a soldier, named Xaver, in Botzen (Tyrol), who found a special enjoyment in wounding

1 Krauss, ibid., p. 181.

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with a knife the private parts of the maidens whom he chanced to meet on his way through the streets, and then to contemplate the blood dropping from the blade of the knife; this procured him according to what he declared in Court the same pleasure that he might have had in actual sexual connection with his victim.

Xaver was addicted to masturbation from his childhood, was in the habit of frequenting prostitutes and had besides often committed sodomy with little girls ; subsequently he found a particular pleasure in masturbating himself in front of little girls who, * in perfect inno- cence looked on with curiosity/

In this case he was dominated by the idea : how delightful it must be to cut the private parts of pretty young girls with a knife and view the blood slowly dropping from the blade.

According to him this " devil-inspired" lustful impulse was irrepressible, and after each attempt became more impossible to subdue, and more furious.

In this manner he had wounded seven young girls, and was not more than 30 years old when he was arrested.

According to the depositions of his com- rades and superior officers, Xaver was a hot-

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tempered, but in no wise a bad man. He had conspicuous peculiarities, was always extremely reserved, and often remained for hours contemplating pictures of a religious character.

The following is another example of a further degree of development of sexual perversion in the same direction :

A young man, 24 years of age, entices a little girl, 12 years old, into a wood, where he first violates and then murders her, drinks her blood, cuts out her sexual parts and her heart, which last he devours. His crime having being proved, he admitted his guilt
 * ^ f and was executed. l

A similar case, in which a man afflicted with cerebral disease was deliberately sentenced to death, occurred again quite injfrecently France. In 1880, a young man aged 19, of the name of Menesclou, was executed in Paris, for having enticed a little girl, 4 years old, to him, whom he then violated and strangled, afterwards cutting up her body into pieces.

To the grief and shame of Science the acting official experts in mental pathology, Lasegue, Brouardel and Motet, notwith- standing the evident and grave form of

1 See Krafft-Ebing, Arch. f. Psych., 1877, p. 296.

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psychical degeneracy of the accused, delivered an opinion unfavourable to him, declaring him to be responsible for his acts, and the patient was guillotined. When Menesclou's brain came to be examined in the anthropo- logical laboratory, it was found that both the frontal lobes, the first and second temporal convolutions and the occipital convolution were in a state of ramolissement (softening). *

Blumroder 2 and Lombroso 3 have noted several cases of anthropophagy, in which according to the declarations of the patients the act of copulation was far from satisfying them ; their lust was only entirely satiated, when they had murdered their victims and cut them to pieces, rummaged their entrails, and even eaten portions of them.

A startling example of necrophilism is that of the well-known sergeant Bertrand, a hand- some young man, 25 years of age, of pleasing appearance, who used to disinter female corpses in the cemeteries, and violate them. 4

In his confession, written in prison before

1 See Affaire Menesclou in Annales d' Hygiene publique, 1880, p. 439.

2 Blumroder, Ueber Lust und Schmerz in Fried reich's Magaz. f. Seelenheilkunde, 1830, II, 5.

8 Lombroso in his study on " Verzeni e Agnolette", Eome, 1874.

4 S. Michea, Union m&licale, 1849.

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going to execution, Bertrand says among other things : l " From my earliest youth I used to masturbate myself, without knowing what I did, and did it openly, without hiding myself. I first began to think of women when I was from 8 to 10 years old; the lust for women developed itself in me only after my 13th or 14th year. After that I knew no bounds and used to masturbate myself seven or eight times daily; the mere aspect of a female article of dress was sufficient to put me into erection. While I was in the act of masturbating, my imagina- tion would transport me into a room crowded with women, who were all at my disposal ; while I seemed to be satisfying my passion on them, I martyrized them in imagination in every possible manner according to my lust, picturing them dead before me and myself defiling their dead bodies. Sometimes the thought would come to me, to cut up a man's body, but that was seldom, and I then felt disgust.

" . . . . As I had not the means of procur- ing human corpses, I sought for the dead bodies of animals, upon which I performed similar atrocities to those which I committed

1 Tardieu, Attcntats aux mceurs, Paris, 1875, p. 114.

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later on the dead bodies of men and women. I used to slit the bellies open, take out the bowels and while contemplating them mastur- bate myself. Then I would withdraw, feel ashamed at my conduct and promise to myself not to recommence; but my passion was stronger than my will. In doing this I experienced a feeling of voluptuousness that it is impossible for me to describe.

myself on the dead bodies of animals I wanted living subjects. In the camp at La Vilette, as in most other camps, there were numerous dogs around, belonging to no one and which used to follow the soldiers. I decided to entice some of these dogs outside the walls and to kill them there, which I three times did. I then pulled out their intestines, as I had previously done to dead animal bodies, and obtained the same enjoyment.
 * ..;. In 1846 I could no longer satisfy

"It was first towards the end of 1846 that the thought possessed me of digging up human bodies. What first gave me the idea was the facility with which one could obtain possession of a corpse out of the common grave in the cemeteries, but I did not then accomplish it, I was kept back by fear.

"In the beginning of 1847 my regiment

40

was ordered to Tours, and my detachment remained in the little town of Blere. It was here that I accomplished the first profanation of a corpse, and under the. following circum- stances : It was about mid-day, I was taking a walk just outside the town with a com- rade, and from curiosity we entered the cemetery, which was on our way. It was towards the end of February. The previous day somebody had been buried and, in consequence of the rain that had fallen, the grave had remained undisturbed, the shovel and pickaxe had also been left there. This sight awakened within me the most unholy thoughts. I had a violent headache, my heart began to beat I could no longer contain myself. I sought for a pretext to return at once to the town. As soon as I had got rid of my comrade, I went back to the cemetery and, without troubling myself about some labourers who were busy in a neighbouring vineyard, I seized the shovel and began with quite extraordinary strength to open out the grave. As soon as I reached the corpse, not having any sharp instrument at hand to cut it up, I set to work to hit it with the shovel as hard as I could, and with a rage that I cannot even now explain.

41

I came to Douai, I again felt the desire to cut up a dead body into pieces. On the evening of the 10th of March, I went to the cemetery. It was about 9 o'clock. After tattoo at 8 o'clock no soldiers are permitted to go outside the limits of the town. I therefore had to climb over a high wall and to swim through a moat. The cold was very severe and there were flakes of ice floating about on the water. But these impediments did not keep me back. When I came to the burial-ground, I dug up the corpse of a young girl of from 15 to 17 years old. Here it was that for the first time I gave myself up to the senseless caressing of a dead body. I cannot describe my feelings ; but all the enjoyment that the possession of a living woman can procure, was nothing in comparison with the pleasure I experienced. I showered kisses on every part of her body, pressed her to my heart with the phrensy of a madman; in one word, I overwhelmed her with the most passionate caresses. After having taken delight in this enjoyment for about a quarter of an hour, I proceeded to cut up the corpse and to take out the en- trails, as I had done to the other victims of
 * ..., When some time after this incident

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my madness. I then put the body back into the grave, covered it over lightly with earth and returned to barracks by the same way that I had come.

" . . . .1 was always fond of destroying. In my infancy my parents abstained from buying me anything, because I was certain to pull it to pieces. When I grew up, I could never preserve any object, a penknife for instance, more than a couple of weeks, without breaking it, and even now I still feel the same impulse to destroy. If I purchase a pipe, it is broken the same evening or at latest the following morning. It often hap- pened, when I was still with my regiment, that on coming home a little tipsy, I smashed everything that came to my hands. "

In a letter written subsequently by Bertrand to Marshal de Calvis : l " . . . . So far as the erotic monomania is concerned, I maintain that it did not precede the destructive im- pulse. It was not before the month of May, when in Douai, that I first felt impelled to violate corpses before cutting them. Up to that time I had cut up eight or ten dead bodies in Blere, without having ever felt the desire to copulate with them. I always

1 Turdicu, loc. cit., p. 122.

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acted with them, as I had previously done with the dead bodies of animals; when I had unburied them, I used to cut them up into pieces and masturbate myself in front of them. It was only after the incident of the cemetery at Douai that the erotic mania began to precede the impulse to destroy. But then the latter became more and more violent than the former, and I felt a far greater enjoyment in cutting up the bodies after violating them, than I had experienced while caressing them. In fact, there is no doubt that the destructive impulse was always more violent in me than the erotic mania. I believe, that at that time I would never have run the risk of disinterring a corpse, for the sole purpose of violating it, if I had not had the intention of cutting it to pieces. I maintain, that here the destructive instinct played the most important part, and no one is in a position to prove the contrary. I .suppose I am the best judge of what was going on within me. The cutting up of the corpses was not for a moment intended to hide the profanation committed, as some have asserted : The impulse to cut up the bodies was in me incomparably more violent than the desire to violate them/

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Similar sexual phrensies are observed in the last stage of degeneracy of cretinism, in idiots and imbeciles. Among these last a tendency to unnatural connection with beasts has been noticed. l On the other hand the extreme stages of degeneracy are sometimes accompanied by absolute brutish stupidity combined with entire disappearance of the sexual instinct.

Thus we see that congenital pederasty, like other genesic perversions, which become manifest in the field of hereditary infirmities, is not a special morbid condition, but only a symptom, and fortunately a relatively rare symptom of psychical degeneracy. Here the degree of perversion generally corresponds to the degree of degeneracy. Therefore all circumstances which lead to so-called psychical degeneracy may be dependent on some congenital disorder of the sexual activity. Here the first and foremost place is taken by hereditary disposi- tion to nervous maladies. A father who is epileptic, or is in general suffering from any form of cerebral disease ; a mother subject to hysteria, or of a pathological disposition; and, in cases of atavism, nervous disease of grand-

1 Sec Mierzcjewpki, Forensischc Gyniikologie (Forensic Gynaecology), p. 264.

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father and grand-mother, or of other blood relations, are the causes which, together with other possibly hereditary morbid tendencies, are the chief factors predisposing to perversion of the sexual instinct.

After this may be cited disproportion in the age of the parents, and more particularly drunken habits in them. A fact is also worth noticing, confirmed by the observations of Flemming, Rurot, Demeaux and others, that the children of parents usually leading a sober life, are in the highest degree psychopathic, and inclined to nervous disease and insanity, when, during the act of procreation one or other of the parents chanced to be inebriated. Syphilis of the parents has also an influence the importance of which must not be under- valued among those which contribute to lower the procreating power of the organism.

At the present moment I know two fami- lies, in which both father and mother were syphilitically affected and gave birth to a number of children. The first of these suffered from the hereditary forms of the disease and were treated for it in their infancy ; the others, who had been born while their parents were in the tertiary or syphiloma phase of the malady, exhibited during their entire childhood

46

no ostensible signs of syphilitic affection, but they presented a perfect picture of neuropathic constitution in the field of degeneration.

One of the boys, when he was nine years old, at the sight of engravings, pictures or statues, representing naked men, used to get into a state of excitement, which would cul- minate in hysterical fits, and after that during several nights he could obtain no sleep. Another, eight years old, when bathing with older boys, used to become much excited, had erections and tried as if in joke to seize hold of their genital parts. On each occasion after such a bathe, the excitement, accom- panied by sleeplessness, would last several days. The parents of both boys, at the time of their conception, were, as already observed, affected with syphilis in an advanced form, but showed no hereditary tendency to nervous disease.

Another cause for the development in children of a neuropathic constitution with perverted sexual sense is to be found in various depressing circumstances that may have weighed upon the parents at the time of the act of procreation. For instance, if the father or mother had but just recovered from severe illness: typhoid fever, pneumonia, physical

47

exhaustion, a high degree of anaemia, intel- lectual overwork, sexual and other excesses, immoral mode of life, and so forth, in a word all that can tend to enfeeble the nervous system and the genesic force of the parent.

Lastly, among the active causes leading to psychical degeneration must further be counted the influence of climate and of soil. Among the inhabitants of high mountainous regions, the Alps, the Cordillera, the Himalayas, we find, widely prevailing, besides cretinism and idiocy, a high degree of sexual perversion or else the sexual instinct totally extin- guished.

The Persians maintained that the moun- tains of Armenia, a high table-land between 6 to 10,000 feet, were the ancient cradle of pederasty. In this connection the accounts of several thoroughly trustworthy travellers are of great interest, who say that a prolonged residence at very high altitudes diminishes sexual desire and weakens erection, which return with renewed force on descending to the valleys.

This diminished genesic tendency might to some extent explain the relatively small in- crease of the population in mountainous dis-

48

tricts, and as it is hereditary, it supplies one of the degenerating motives which impel to perversion of the sexual instinct.

Among the series of manifestations of degeneracy, the most frequently observed form of contrary genesic sense is passive pederasty, with indifference towards the female sex, and accompanied by relatively unimportant psy- copathic phenomena.

Intelligence and will may be normally developed, and by this means there is always the possibility of restraining the morbidly predisposed youth from the accomplishment of the sodomistic act itself. The sexual in- difference to women being congenital the inclination towards men is equally so. This sometimes manifests itself, at first quite unconsciously, in rapturous enthusiasm for manly bravery, generosity and intellectual force ; later it turns to the worship of manly beauty, skill, strength, etc. Then comes the ardent desire to see the beloved object, to converse with him, to idolize him. Later 0n erection and emission of semen take place at mere contact with his person. All this goes to e^SAlish the predisposition to pederasty;" but tile propensity to the sodom- istic act itself is never inborn.

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When the morbidly disposed youth, under the influence of good education, has kept his mind free from stain and his imagination pure, the act of pederasty, or more correctly sodomy, itself seems to him quite as filthy and disgusting as to a healthy subject. A certain depravity, and want of will on the part of the predisposed youth, or the influence of example, of continual incitation, tempta- tion, ruse or some degree of violence on the side of the active party, are needed to bring about the actual accomplishment of the pede- rastic act.

There is here nothing fatal, unavoidable, immutable. And for that very reason it is always possible by a judicious education to restrain the predisposed youth from actual sodomy, although one may not always succeed in overcoming his sexual aversion to women or his indifference towards them.

In this connection we have had numerous examples of subjects, who from their youth were aware of their perverted sexual feelings, at the same time recognizing the horror and abomination of pederasty, and the contempt with which it is stigmatized by Society and who felt disgust at this abominable act and always kept themselves un contaminated. In

50

the observation of Shaw and Ferris l for instance, an intellectually and physically well- developed. man of 35 years of age, by force of will overcame the desire to embrace a man; male society always put him into a state of erethism, and he had erection even during the medical examination. He was sometimes seized with the impetuous desire to lay his arms around and embrace some man who had pleased him; but he always restrained himself, although he was perpe- tually in dread that a moment would come when he would be unable to be master of himself; this dread and the wish to be freed from it, induced him to seek for medical relief.

We also find in the observations of Char cot and Magnan 2 a male subject, who from his youth felt an inclination towards men, and became so excited at the view of a virile member, that he there and then had emission of semen. Although he was quite indifferent to the female sex, and perfectly recognized the abnormality of his condition, in one word, that he was a congenital pederast, he suc-

1 J. C. Shaw and N. Ferris, Perverted Sexual Instinct, Journal of Nerv. and Mental Disease, 1883, No. 2.

2 Charcot and Magnan, loc. cit.

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ceeded by the exercise of reason and of force of will in restraining himself all his life from any sort of pederastic practice. In this case the skilful treatment of Charcot and Mag- nan was not without success. The treatment adopted gave brilliant results, and at the end of a year the patient was able to have normal intercourse with women, and even to make plans for marrying.

The earlier the inborn defect is observed, the more judiciously the development of the mind and the will is conducted, and the more practical the means employed to lower and to retard as long as possible the manifestation of the sexual instinct, the greater will be the hope that the unfortunate, morbidly disposed youth may be preserved from the horrible vice. It may here be remarked that the more easily the subject learns to overcome by force of will his instinctive predilection for men, the more does his aversion to woman diminish, and in many cases of young men with congenital sexual perversion, observed by us, we found that at the age of from 25 to 30 years they became capable of having intercourse with women, of marrying and of having children.

II. Periodical Perversion of the Genesic Instinct (Periodical Pederasty)
To congenital forms of sexual perversion must also be added that morbid deviation of the genesic sense, which manifests itself at certain times, then entirely disappears, and after a certain interval shows itself again with renewed force. Such are, so to speak, temporary pederasts, who are periodically subject to an abnormal sexual propensity, fail more or less to accomplish properly the sexual act, are not seldom married men, breed children, and intermittently give way to pederasty, as dipsomaniacs give way to their lust for drink.

This periodical mode of abnormal satisfaction of the sexual instinct manifests itself most often under the form of active pederasty and of flagellation. The morbid subjects satisfy their perverted instinct two or three times during the course of the year, not oftener, and in other times have normal intercourse with women.

The more distinctly marked the periodicity of these attacks of sexual perversion, the more intense is the morbid disturbance, and the more it approximates to the form of a periodically re-appearing maniacal excitement, that is to say, the culminating exterior manifestation of psychical degeneracy.

In fact there are cases known, of intellectually gifted married men, fathers of families, who, from time to time, sometimes after long intervals, have resorted to pederasty, flagellation or necrophilism, or felt an irresistible impulse to submit themselves to the coarsest and most cynical treatment insulting words, and blows administered by Cynedes, active pederasts or by prostitutes.

As in all forms of periodical mania, in the intervals between the attacks the patients are entirely in command of their mental capacities, and consequently are able to hide even from their nearest friends their carefully dissimulated attacks.

For instance one subject took a long time to instruct a prostitute to flagellate him in a particular manner, informing her before- hand, that after a certain time he would pay her a visit, say nothing, but without a word throw himself on the bed. and that she must then flog him according to his previously given instructions. In fact some months later he came to her, silent, gloomy, quite

54

different to what he had been before, " so strange," as the prostitute said; he undressed, extended himself on the bed, underwent the whipping, during which he uttered some incoherent words, became much excited, had emission of semen, then slept for several hours and went away without saying a word.

After this incident he visited the woman, the fit being over, paid her the stipulated remuneration, observing that certain of his instructions had not been carried out during his attack. From this time on he used during many years to visit her at the time of his attacks, once in two or three months, and never had normal connection with her, but merely had himself flogged, and always in the same manner.

Another patient, the observation of whose case has been communicated to me by my excellent friend Dr. M. Witz, used previous to his attack to charge a person, devoted to him and acquainted with his malady, to make certain extremely complicated preparations. A particular private lodging was hired before- hand, in which were established a prostitute, as lady of the house, and with her a cook and chambermaid, also prostitutes, all three

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being well instructed in what they would have to do. When the attack drew near, the patient, who knew none of the persons in the house, would appear. He was then undressed, subjected to different sorts of violence con- nected with his sexual parts, masturbated, flagellated, etc., all in a fixed order and according to a plan previously agreed upon. He would make a pretence of resistance, swear, get into a rage, ask to be let off, but in the long run he submitted to everything.

He was then given food, ordered to go to bed, and riot allowed to go out, notwith- standing his remonstrances, and he was beaten when he refused to obey. This lasted a few days. When the fit was over which was made manifest by certain symptoms to the confidential person, who watched the whole affair without being visible he was permitted to depart. After a few days he used to go home to his family wife and children who had riot the least idea of his malady. As a shrewd, well-informed, rich man of business he always managed to find some plausible excuse for his absence during the period of his attack, which would occur once, sometimes twice in a year.

A third patient, who adored his wife a

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beauty brought up his children admirably, was him'self of a gentle and poetic nature, secretly seduced two boys, brothers, and gradu- ally induced the one and then the other to become respectively passive and active pederasts. Then he used several times in the year to go with them to a bath-room and made them accomplish in his presence the pederastic act, in which he himself actively participated. At other times he felt no pederastic desires and liked the society of women, notwithstanding which he would, not without a certain amount of wit, defend the form of sexual perversion which occupies our attention.

We must also put to the account of peri- odical pederasty an episode of the celebrated prosecution of the "Rue Basse des Remparts" in Paris in 1845, in which 47 persons were accused of sodomy and of blackmailing.

A woman who let out furnished lodgings, who was also a procuress, deposed, that in obedience to one of her clients, who visited her from time to time and used to give her his instructions beforehand even to the small- est details, she dressed out a pederast whom she knew in her own clothes, with bonnet and veil, and a blonde wig with curls, and in that attire, which was never altered, he

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had to put himself at the disposition of her customer, who paid handsomely for the privilege.

To this may be added an observation of Lasegue * concerning periodical "Exhibi- tionists" (Persons indulging in Indecent Exposure), young, and presenting no signs of decrepitude. For instance a handsome looking, rich man, of 30 years of age, was brought before the magistrate to answer for offending public morals in churches. At the close of the day he used to enter a church, in which there were but few people, and espying a woman praying alone, would ap- proach her and exhibit his genitals and then after a brief moment silently retire. As he declared to the physician, an irresistible impulse would seize him at certain moments, and in spite of his resistance he was obliged to give way to this fatal propensity and consciously to commit a senseless act.

In other cases known to us the fits of sexual perversion eventuated in pederasty, coinciding at the same time with connection of the subject with women, or in pederasty with flagellation, etc.

Except at the time of the fits all the

1 Lasegue, Union medicale, 1877, 1 Mai.

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above named patients were capable of normal connection with women, most of them were married and demanded of their wives no devia- tion from the normal accomplishment of the sexual act. Some of them suffered occasionally from terrible pangs of remorse, were overcome by deep melancholy by the consciousness of their vice, by the fear of ruining their domestic happi- ness or of coming into conflict with the law. But when the free interval was drawing to an end, and the fit began to approach, the patient would become uneasy, his self-assertion was augmented, and he felt an invincible longing to accomplish the sexual act in a certain perverted manner. The nearer the moment of the fit approached, the less able he found himself to accomplish normal copulation. The patient begins to fear that he would be unable to restrain himself, that he would betray himself to his wife or to his relations. Mean- time the morbid desire increases, it stifles all other thoughts and desires, pursues him con- tinually, without a moment's respite, giving him no rest by night or by day, robs him of the faculty of attending to any business, or of directing his thoughts to any other subject. He feels that if he is to continue the struggle something fearful will happen;

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he fears he is going to lose all his self-com- mand, and that he will go mad .... He gives way, satisfies his morbid lust, often looking back with loathing on what has taken place, despising himself for his weakness, and goes back to his usual manner of life and to his normal sexual activity.

As these periodical pederasts seldom confide their secret to any one, they differ by their extreme reserve from others subject to this perversion. They avoid frequenting the society of pederasts, even avoid associating with young men, do not like to converse on abnormal sexual connections, and above all betray no outward sign of the habitual pederast.

It is only illness, or the dread of being discovered, that can induce them to expose their misfortune, and in every detail given by them there can be seen the bitter self- consciousness of their weakness and moral deficiency. Many of them, in the intervals between the attacks, look with contempt upon pederasts ; many indeed manifest a certain mor- bid hatred, particularly towards feminine look- ing Cynedes, in this resembling dipsomaniacs who, in the periods between their drunken fits, cannot suffer wine at all, and cannot without disgust put up even with the smell of it.

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But at the same time they have the intuition, that after a certain interval the morbid tendency will again awaken and with invincible, and irresistible force once more puc-h them to perform a whole series of actions, the mere remembrance of which in the free intervals between the attacks inspires them with abhorrence. The dread, that during the period of their imminent attack they will not be able to dissimulate it from their friends with sufficient foresight and self- command, forces many of them, during their free intervals, to prepare for the inevitable event, and to imagine all possible precau- tions for keeping the matter in the greatest secrecy.

When the accustomed means of satisfying the morbid propensity has been interrupted by accidental circumstances, or the attack comes unawares upon the patient, he acts under the influence of an irresistible sensual impulse, and either employs violence, or takes so little precaution, that he draws the attention of people, gets taken up by the police, ruins his domestic happiness ; he loses his social standing and in a moment of despair commits suicide, or else appears on the prisoners' bench, to the great surprise of most of his friends.

Gl

A man, hitherto considered by every one to be a modest, moral father of a family, a talented government official or a gallant general, is suddenly unmasked and discovered to be the greatest debauchee, who satisfies his sexual lust in the most unnatural and depraved manner.

Krafft-Ebing l mentions such a case of periodical sexual perversion, in which bestiality is concerned, but in my opinion the fact requires confirmation.

An engineer, 45 years old, father of a family, suddenly quits his business in Trieste, and hastens to Vienna to meet his wife. During the journey he leaves the train at an intermediate station, goes into the nearest village, enters a cottage, and there violates an old woman, 70 years of age, whom he sees for the first time. Arrested immediately afterwards, he declared that such an impetuous desire for copulation had been awakened within him that he had got out of the train, to seek for a knacker's yard or a slaughter- house, in order to satisfy his lust on a dog (many of which frequent these places); but

1 Krafft-Ebing, Arch. f. Psychologie und Nervenkrank- heiten (Magazine of Psychology and Nervous Diseases), 1877, Bd. VII, p. 296.

4

not having succeeded in his search and the want becoming more imperative, so that he could no longer contain himself, he went into the very first house he came to and satiated his lust on the first female he met. He had previously had several attacks of such sudden sexual desire, and had often satisfied it on dogs.

The intelligence of the delinquent was undiminished ; he recognized the abominable nature of his act, explaining it by the exaggerated morbid sexual impulse which from time to time overpowered him. From his childhood he had been a neuropathic subject; from 1864 to 1867 he had suffered from recurrent mania, with exaggerated sexual desire. During the last six years he had been intellectually perfectly sane.

It is evident that we have here not only, as Krafft-Ebing says, a case of exaggerated sexual impulse, but a morbidly perverse instinct, which by chance found an uncommon way for its manifestation.

The patient, suddenly feeling the preliminary symptoms of the attack so unhappily well- known to him, hastens to Vienna, where he can secretly satisfy his passion on animals. But time presses, he tries to find a slaughter-

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house, around which there are always many wandering dogs, finds none, and, entirely beside himself, falls upon the first poor old woman he meets, and violates her on the spot.

If it had been simply a case of exaggerated sexual lust, he might, at least temporarily, have satisfied it by masturbation or have sought for relief in any of the houses of prostitution in Trieste; he would not then have had to run after a dog, and would not in a state of phrensy have violated an aged woman, without taking even the slightest precautions.

It is precisely this moment of phrensy that is the dread of the sufferers from periodical sexual perversion, and which induces them to prepare in time before the dreaded paroxysm.

In certain particularly marked cases the attack may fall quite unexpectedly upon the patient, as in the case of the College Registrar L., who committed the act of sodomy on a little boy two years old. l

L., 26 years of age, married, father of a family, gives way now and then to drink ; on

1 Mierzejewski, Forensische Gymikologie (Forensic Gynae- cology), p. '235.

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the 9th of August being in a somewhat in- ebriated state he took the little boy Constantin from the mother and carried it on his arm to the garden, placed it on a swing and violated it. At the terrible cries of the child the mother rushed on the scene, perceived L. unbuttoned, holding the blood-stained infant on his knees. She seized the child and carried it away at once into the house. L. also immediately disappeared. The following day, on being questioned by the magistrate, to every question he replied : " That his head burned on both sides. " He was the same day removed to hospital, showed symptoms of tendency of blood to the head, did not speak, breathed heavily and was low spirited. For the next three weeks he felt ill, was at times the victim of melancholy and complained of severe headache. After a first application of a cantharides blister erysipelas supervened, and it was not until the 16th of September that he came to himself again and then declared, that he knew nothing whatever of what had happened to him on the 9th August, and that it could not have been the drink, but madness that had led him into crime. It was not the first time that his senses had been so overclouded.

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L. was sentenced by the Court to hard labour, but on appeal the higher jurisdiction recognized, in accordance with the official opinion of the medical experts, that the in- criminated act had been accomplished under the influence of a morbid mental perturbation ; he died in prison before the final decision was given.

Von Gock 1 has published the example of a still greater degree of mental disturbance and maniacal erethism, with a periodically in- creased tendency to pederasty.

A Jew of 22 years of age, with a weakly developed intelligence, during his stay in the establishment 2 used to seize hold of the pri- vate parts of all the employes proposing to them to accomplish with him the pederastic act, in which he desired to take the passive part. After some time his condition improved and he left the place. A few months later, however, the morbid attack recurred and with pederastic tendencies in renewed force.

In both these last cases the symptoms of a psychopathic constitution, with diminution of intelligence, were clearly defined, apart

1 Archiv f. Psychologie, 1875, p. 566.

2 Von Gock neglects to say in what establishment, prob- ably an asylum (Transl.).

4*

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even from the attack of sexual perversion. Such subjects most frequently come to the prisoners' dock, or go straight to a lunatic asylum. But there are on the contrary other more gifted patients, more intellectually de- veloped who, when they are convinced of having committed such a crime, seek for a refuge in suicide, like the French general N., whose affair filled all the Paris papers a few years ago.

The tendency to necrophilism, which is in rare cases observed in patients, in the form of isolated attacks separated by long lucid intervals, is also to be considered as periodical sexual perversion.

It is therefore extremely probable that the case of sexual perversion observed in a Church dignitary, recorded by Leo Taxil, l was of a periodical character. He says:

In a well-known house of prostitution in Paris there existed, according to information given by the patient himself, a chamber, the walls of which were covered with black satin on which were silver tears a funeral deco- ration; at the sides of the bed were placed silver candelabra, and on it lay a prostitute, painted white all over, so as better to resemble

1 Leo Taxil, La Prostitution contemporaine, p. 171.

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a corpse, who had to remain extended, with- out making a movement, with her arms crossed upon her breast. At the appointed hour the prelate entered in full pontificals, knelt before the bed of the simulated corpse, muttering some incoherent words, as if he celebrating a funeral mass, and then suddenly threw himself upon his victim, whose business it was all the time to play the part of a corpse, and to lie extended without making a movement or uttering a syllable.

Brierre de Boismont l has recorded another observation. In a small provincial town in France a young girl, 16 years old, of a respectable family, had just died. In the night the mother of the dead girl heard the noise of furniture overturned in the chamber wherein lay the corpse. She rushed in and saw before her an unknown man stripped of all but his shirt, rising from the bed whereon lay the corpse. She raised a cry, in response to which several people hurried up, laid hold of the intruder, who seemed to pay no attention at all to what was taking- place around him, and who gave only very incoherent answers to the questions that were put to him. The examination of the corpse

1 Gazette medicale, 1849, 21 July.

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showed that it had been violated, and that copulation with it had been effected several times. According to the judicial enquiry it was proved that those who were charged to sit up with the corpse had been bribed, that the prisoner was possessed of a large fortune and had received a good education, frequented the higher classes of society and had repeatedly been able, by expending large sums of money, and employing all sorts of stratagems, to obtain access to the corpses of young maidens recently deceased, which he violated. He was sentenced by the Court to imprisonment for life.

A careful and continued observation of this kind of subjects, afflicted with periodical sexual perversion, renders it perfectly possible, to discover in each of them a number of more or less distinctly marked signs of a neuropathic, excitable character or the indubitable symptoms of a heavy hereditary taint. On the other hand, a superficial and general acquaintance of such patients makes them appear as persons having very little in common with the previously described types of congenital pederasts, in their outward appearance, manners, mode of life, etc.

Recent observations would tend to show, that the development of periodically recurrent sexual aberrations is possible without the existence of a hereditary psychopathic con- stitution. For instance, Anjel J describes the following case: A married man, of middle age, without pathological hereditary transmission, had at one time fallen in a concert-hall and considerably bruised his head, so seriously as to have remained stunned for some time. He subsequently experienced much oppression and weight in the region of the heart, etc. He was later on subject to a peculiar sort of attacks, consisting in sleeplessness, loss of appetite, irritability and mental depression. When he was in this condition the presence of little girls caused him a peculiar excitement. Even his own little daughters aged five and ten years respectively awakened within him desires, that he could only master with difficulty; the shouts of children in a neigh- bouring room caused him erections. He felt himself irresistibly attracted towards little girls and, although he thoroughly recognized all that was criminal and vicious in his desires, he used to go into the streets, to

1 Ueber eigenthiimliche. Anfiille -perverser Sexualerregung (Singular Cnses of perverted Sexual Stimulation), Archiv f, Psych., vol. XV, H. 2,

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meet the children coming from school, and entice little girls into dark corners, where he lifted their clothes and exposed their parts.

The attack would last from 8 to 14 days; then he came to himself again, troubled with remorse, and returned to his usual mode of life, and also to normal sexual activity.

A year, sometimes 15 months, interval of tranquillity might intervene, after which the attacks recurred with the same force. Anjel considers the above case described by him as identical with epileptic fits, comparing the paroxysms of abnormal sexual desire with psychical epileptic equivalents, a point that will be considered later on. I will merely remark here that this explanation does not seem to me quite conclusive, as it is well known that the distinctive sign of epileptic psychoses consists in a certain obliteration of conscience during the attack, which, however, was wanting in the case just recorded. Psychical epilepsy manifests itself either quite suddenly, or with very brief precursory signs in the form of "aura" symptoms, arid disappears with equal rapidity, which was not the case with the subject just mentioned, the paroxysm having then been preceded during several days by morbid irritability and lowness of spirits.

Again, the remembrance of the attack, which sometimes subsists immediately after it, always ultimately disappears, and this again in the case recorded by Anjel is not the case. The absence of any sort of morbid manifestation between the paroxysms, as also of the so-called epileptic symptoms, and of the obliteration of conscience immediately after the attack all these facts justify me in reckoning AnjePs observation among the cases of periodical mania, in the group I have presented of periodical perversion of the sexual instinct. The principal interest in the above case is the absence of hereditary neuropathic predisposition.

If this fact is exact which, however, is not altogether certified in the description this case would constitute an exception, because in all similar observations of the kind the influence of hereditary taint is distinctly manifest.

III. SEXUAL PERVERSION OF EPILEPTICS (EPILEPTIC PEDERASTY)
As Epilepsy is one of the most distinctly marked forms of psychical degeneracy, it is obvious at the outset it must often manifest itself in conjunction with a perversion of the sexual instinct. It is now every day more evident that the special study of epileptic fits, the complicated disorders comprehended under the term " Epilepsy, " is far from being exhausted. In the intervals between the attacks and after the same, a whole series of supplementary phenomena may be observed, which point to a general affection of the nervous system and to a highly neuropathic constitution. In fact, a particular pathological character has been described, the so-called u epileptic crisis/

The principal points of the un amiable character of the epileptic are these: he is gloomy, now and then extremely irritable, wavering without motive from intense activity to apathy and lowness of spirits; cruel and pitiless as well as vindicative and hypocritical. All this points to the existence of a general and deeply seated lesion of the nervous centres.

Thus it may readily be understood how sexual perversion and epilepsy are often observed together, having both of them the common origin of a hereditary taint, and generally are the effects of the same etiological factors productive of psychical degeneration.

It can be asserted, without exaggeration, that hereditary epilepsy is very often to be met with combined with abnormal sexual instincts. It often happens that the sexual power of the epileptic subject is much diminished ; copulation is achieved only with difficulty, and there is not much desire for it. Sometimes epileptic subjects do not satisfy their sexual desires with women, but resort from youth upwards to masturbation. . At the same time, at the age of manhood the erethism is sometimes so exaggerated, that ejaculation of semen immediately follows erection, which consequently renders normal copulation with women impossible.

The epileptic masturbators may mostly be ranked immediately after the epileptic pederasts, generally active. Besides, all the above-described forms of hereditary sexual perversion may be met with together with epilepsy.

In such cases epilepsy is simply one of the symptoms, pointing to a serious psychical degeneracy, and the manner of manifestation of the sexual perversion no longer presents any distinctive colour.

Nevertheless, during epilepsy, although in but very rare cases, peculiar forms of sexual perversion have been observed, the signification of which is equivalent to epileptic psychoses.

It is well known that sometimes epileptic patients, instead of having the real epileptic fit, are subject to sudden, temporary and rapidly evoked mental disturbances, with obliteration of conscience, mad delirious hallucinations with ideas of persecution or religious megalomania. During the course of such an epileptic disturbance, with obliteration of conscience, sexual erethism may supervene, with imperious desire to satisfy the same. The patient commits a series of nefarious acts, has sometimes abnormal sexual connection, and when the attack is over can but indistinctly remember what took place and is quite unable to explain his unreasonable actions.

Some years ago I had occasion to observe a most interesting case which, thanks to the good will of all the persons interested, did not become the subject of a judicial enquiry.

A wealthy young man, 26 years of age, had lived for about a year with a young woman, whom he seemed to love very much. During this time he had twice had epileptic fits in the night after a too free indulgence in alcoholic liquors. He led a very irregular life, but he seldom had copulation, and then generally with the same woman. He showed no tendency to perverted sexuality. One evening, after a dinner at which he had taken too much wine, he went on foot to the lodging of his mistress, spoke a few words to the maid-servant who opened the door to him, and who informed him that her mistress had not yet come home, then he went with steady steps to the bedroom, and from there into an adjoining room where a lad, 14 years old, was sleeping, whom he began to violate. The boy who was torn and one of whose hands was hurt shouted for help, and the maid-servant hastened up; whereupon he left the boy and threw himself upon the girl and violated her. He then went to bed without completely undressing himself and slept for twelve hours without awakening. When he awoke, he at first remembered nothing at all of what had taken place; a few hours afterwards he remembered having been drunk the day before and having had connection with a woman; the incident with the boy was entirely erased from his memory. I saw the patient two days later. He was unwilling to answer questions, was depressed in mind and ascribed everything to his having been drunk. A few weeks later he had renewed epileptic fits, but as far as I could ascertain no sexual perversion was this time observed.

Another case, of an epileptic subject, whose attacks were accompanied by increased sexual desire together with obliteration of conscience, has been kindly communicated by Dr. Erlicki.

Mr. X .... who had left college after a brilliant course of study, had for one or two years led a dissipated life and had some epileptic fits ; he afterwards makes a journey to a country estate, and there proposes for the hand of a young lady of good family. It is settled that the marriage is to take place on the estate of the bride's parents. All the guests are assembled and are waiting the arrival of the bridegroom. He makes his appearance, accompanied by his brother, a doctor, goes straight through the saloon thronged with guests, approaches his bride and then, unbuttoning his trousers, he begins to masturbate himself before the public.

He was at once carried home and conveyed by his brother to the Hospital for Mental Diseases. During the entire journey he manifested an uncontrollable inclination to satisfy his desires by masturbation. The same tendency was remarked during the first few days of his stay at the clinical hospital but with diminishing force. After the paroxysm was over, the patient had but a dim, scanty recollection of what had occurred, much of which was entirely obliterated from his memory, and was unable to give any explanation whatever of his actions.

Dr. Kowalewski l (of Karkov) has communicated his observation of a case of combined epilepsy, in which during a furious maniacal epileptic attack epileptic convulsions had presented themselves, but nevertheless after they had subsided the maniacal fury still continued:

M. B. .. ., 40 years old, previously in perfect "health, was one day depressed, ate nothing, and the next morning, in presence of his wife and three children, began to im- portune Mme. B., a friend of the family who was sitting in the parlour, to come and copulate with him. Repulsed by her, he next appealed to his wife and, without heeding the presence of the lady friend and of the children, im- plored her to give him immediate sexual satisfaction. As she also refused, he fell down, began to moan, became pale in the face

1 P. Kowalewski. Juridical-psychiatric Analyses (in Rus- sian), 1881, p. 61.

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and then had an attack of furious mania. His wife and her friend having rushed from the room, he smashed the windows, threw boiling water over all those who approached him and finally cast his wife's little three year old child into the stove.

He was acquitted by the Court on the plea of irresponsibility, and two years and a half later he entered Dr. Kowalewski's Divisional Asylum, suffering from strongly marked epi- leptic attacks.

Lastly, the actions of many persons ac- cused of rape or perverted sexual acts may be imputed to epileptic obfuscation of conscience with exacerbation of the sexual instinct and impulsive acts. Unfortunately this form of transitory mental disturbance has up to the present been but very little studied.

A great sensation was created a short time ago in Russia by the case of a merchant, who, after committing all sorts of excesses in a house of prostitution in Moscow, came to himself again only in Kiev, 490 miles away, without in the least knowing how and why he got there, where he found himself alone without a farthing in his pocket. The judicial enquiry had only to do with his having been robbed, without taking into consideration his state of absence of mind. This case recalls that mentioned by Legrand du Saulle, 1 in which a French merchant, whose travelling companions had been much struck with his strange manner, found himself one day in Bombay, to his intense astonishment and alarm, instead of being in Paris.

Want of reflection, neglect of precaution, absence of any idea of avoiding the responsibility of his criminal acts, intense obliteration of self-conscientiousness during their commission, shadowy remembrance of what has occurred such are the peculiarities which distinguish epileptic sexual perversion from the previously mentioned forms of periodical abnormality of the sexual instinct.

There now remains only to speak of a psychical condition, often alluded to by the public, but generally with the most erroneous ideas concerning the nature of the malady.

Erotomania or excitation of the psychical functions in a particular direction with an erotic tendency may spontaneously present itself in neuropathic subjects, or as a symptom of far more distinctly marked psychotic or neurotic crises.

1 Legrand du Saulle, Etude medico-legale, p. 110.

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One of the manifestations of psychical degeneration is a morbid disposition to fall in love, which is the most prominent symp- tom of the mental condition in question. It is more frequently met with in women, par- ticularly among the hysterical ; it is also found in men of decided neuropathic constitution, who have been addicted to masturbation, or suffer from enfeebled sexual power. Severe previous cerebral disease during youth, com- bined with hereditary influences, may also sometimes favour the development of this condition.

The youth, who in the company of women appears ashamed and morbidly timid, when he is alone, allows his imagination to soar at will, and has then usually recourse to masturbation; or when the erethism is still greater, together with excitability and weak- ness of the nervous system, his imagination alone is then sufficient to procure him emission of semen.

When repeatedly renewed influence has attached the patient to an object or to a particular person, as the subject of his love dreams, then if these favouring circumstances continue, the initial stage of this erotomania is soon developed to a more advanced form.

The patient idolizes the object of his affection, adores it, sacrifices everything to it, thinks continually of it, sends letters, composes verses and becomes unsupportable to every one about him with perpetual talk of his love, his sufferings or his ecstasy.

All observers have remarked, that the love of such subjects, notwithstanding their passion, is purely Platonic. Nevertheless absolute Platonism, at all events in the initial stages of many erotomaniacs, whom I have had occasion to observe, appears to me to be doubtful.

Most erotomaniacs are incapable of accomplishing regular normal copulation, as is the case with most of the inveterate masturbators with hereditary taint. A very frequent cause of their committing suicide is precisely this impossibility which they feel of being ever able te satisfy their flame with the object of their passion.

I have often had occasion to refer to specialists in neuropathology young men of this sort, who would threaten to commit suicide, if they could not obtain an immediate cure of their infirmity. They used to complain of incomplete erection, and that the emission of semen took place at the mere sight of the loved person, and they felt incapable of having regular sexual intercourse with their idol, without whose possession life seemed worthless to them. Not seldom their idol was only some brothel prostitute, who as for intercourse with them wanted only their money, or else some married woman who had never given the mad youth the slightest reason to suppose that she was at all inclined to allow him any intimacy whatever.

The love of such affected subjects is naturally Platonic, when its object is a person accidentally met with, or of high rank, a celebrity, etc. But here again masturbation usually procures satisfaction to their excited imagination.

As the morbid disposition becomes further developed it imperceptibly changes into dis- ease. The patient imagines that the looks and gestures of the object of his passion, sometimes a person to whom he is quite unknown, have a particular meaning, express- ing reciprocation or encouragement of his sentiments. As they are constantly exciting their imagination, and have recourse in secret to onanistic relief, they often come to entertain positive illusions and hallucinations.

The love mania becomes complicated with ambitious ideas, or else there aris.es a morbid dread of persecution, alternating with hypochondriacal terrors.

Congenital Cynedes, who have been brought up among women, far from the depraving influence of pederasts, but still without suffi- cient care and education, easily become erotomaniacs. In such cases the object of their passion is naturally either some hero, whose portrait they have often had occasion to see, or a celebrated Musician, Singer, or man of Science. The same exaggerated ten- dency to fall in love, but this time with perverted sexual instinct, manifests itself also in that pathological state which cannot be better designated than under the namepede- rastomania. The patient sees day and night before him the object of his adoration, whose perfections transport him to ecstasy, perfec- tions sometimes imaginary and invariably exaggerated, to whom he swears eternal honour and devotion, promises disinterested affection, etc.

Each word, each movement of the adored object awakens in our subject either extra- ordinary joy, and excitation, or plunges him into despair, robs him of appetite and of sleep.

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The general excitation may even increase and culminate in veritable fever, that which Lorry has described as erotic fever, or indeed manifest itself in a regular attack of mania, with obfuscation of conscience and erotic delirium, not unfrequently derived from reli- gious or demoniacal ideas.

We always find in the Journals and Memoirs of the great majority of Cynedes the same descriptions of sorrow and joy, of hope and fear, which characterize the correspondence and autobiography of hysterical girls and erotomaniac women.

With strongly developed erotomaniacs the object of their adoration is not always a living one, and this particularity may lead to a peculiar aberration of the sexual instinct. It is indeed well known that pictures often suffice for the excitation of onanists ; similarly a picture or particularly a statue may become the object of adoration of an erotomaniac.

Ancient Greece is rich in examples of the adoration of statues and in recorded endeav- ours of unfortunate erotomaniacs to accom- plish sexual connection with these. The story of Clysophus is well known, who was ena- moured of a marble statue in the temple of Samos. He hid himself in the temple arid

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tried to accomplish the act of love with the statue, but could not succeed on account of the coldness of the marble ; he then had recourse to a piece of raw meat, placed it on a particular part of the statue and suc- ceeded by this means in accomplishing what he wanted.

Another Greek, who hnd become enamoured of the statue of Cupid in the temple of Delphi, accomplished the pederastic act with it, and in gratitude for the same deposited a valuable crown at the feet of the statue. The oracle, being appealed to on this occasion, ordered that the madman be set at liberty, who in any case had already paid a heavy price for a very moderate pleasure.

But in our days too statues and pictures have at times been the objects of the adora- tion of psychopathies. In 1877 the French newspapers related the case of a gardener, who had fallen in love with a statue repre- senting the Venus of Milo, exposed in a park. l And a few years ago, in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, a young man was arrested, who was in the habit of paying visits by moon-light to the statue of a nymph, situated on the terrace of a country-house.

1 Evenement, 4 May 1877.

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It lies outside the object of our work, to describe rare and exceptional cases of sexual perversion, which we have not been able to observe ourselves, for instance, such as luna- tics, particularly maniacs, who fancy that they are women and consequently seek for the company of men, as Dr. Raggi has lately recorded. l Nor is it our business to record cases of sexual mania, which is at times found in connection with sudden acts of impulse, or appears occasionally in the course of dif- ferent forms of ordinary mania, alcoholic automatism, 2 etc.

With regard to alcoholism, it is to be remarked, as far as my personal observations have gone, that by itself it never leads to sexual perversion in healthily constituted sub- jects. Although in many cases alcohol may have an exciting effect, increases venereal desire and prolongs the duration of the sexual act, yet, as far as I have been able to ob- serve, it does not tend to induce in normally constituted subjects any deviation from the usual method of satisfying the claims of sexual desire. But, on the contrary, in psychopathic

1 Raggi, Aberrazione del sentimento sessuale in un maniaco ginecomasta. "La Salute," 1882, No. 11, p. 86.

2 F. D. Crothers, Inebriate Automatism. " The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases," No. 2.

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subjects, who are inclined to sexual perversion, and whose predisposition can only be repelled and weakened by good sense, strength of will and force of habit, the congenital tendency becomes intensified when in drink, by reason of the diminution of self-command and increased sexual desire, and the inebriate person commits a series of acts which he could always refrain from doing while he was sober.

I knew a doctor with neuropathic constitution, who usually had normal connection with women. But as soon as he had drunk wine, which very quickly took effect upon him, normal copulation no longer sufficed to satisfy his increased sexual lust. In this condition he felt impelled to prick a woman's posterior or cut it with a lancet, he required to see blood or to feel the blade penetrating the living flesh in order to find perfect satisfaction to his lust with emission of semen.

I will further mention that many authors of the present day (e.g. Moreau de Tours) describe under the name of Satyriasis a particular neurosis with greatly increased sexual desire, continual erection, frequent emission and morbid unconquerable desire for connection, with obscuration of the other senses.

The patient has hallucinations, delirium, falls into furious mania, becomes violent, etc. in one word, his self-control is much diminished and he is irresponsible.

The development of satyriasis is principally attributed to sexual abstinence, particularly under the influence of religious convictions. It is for instance detailed in the confession of the Abbe de Cours, written down by him- self and published by Buffon. l After a long period of struggle, fasting and prayer, all women began to seem to him as if surrounded with a nimbus of electric light; their aspect had a terrible effect upon him ; it seemed to him as if the Governor were offering him all the Court ladies, so that he might break his vow of chastity, etc.

The apparitions which haunted Saint Anthony far surpass those mentioned in the above confession.

When patients in this state meet with opposition, they may resort to violence, and even commit murder.

Leger, who was executed in 1834 for violating and murdering a girl, had until then maintained absolute sexual abstinence, under the influence of religious convictions,

1 Buffon, Histoire naturelle de 1'Homme. Puberte.

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which were strengthened by the local Minister of religion. It is easy to understand how in such a case of outburst of violent mania the accomplishment of the pederastic act is possible, even where there is a certain amount of struggling and resistance.

In my opinion satyriasis is not to be considered as an independent psychosis ; it is more properly to be looked upon as a symptom of morbidly increased excitation of the cerebral processes and a general acceleration of the psychical phenomena, as is regularly the case in the maniacal state.

The sexual delirium is an incidental symptom, that shows itself in many diseases of the brain and is not at all to be taken for a particular form of " genesic mania " as Moreau de Tours maintains to be the case. Delirium of this kind may show itself in any of the above-described forms of abnormal sexual instinct, particularly if there is any hereditary taint.

Nor must we reckon as satyriasis those morbid affections which are the result of ingestion of cantharides and other so-called pocula amatoria (love philters). I have often had occasion to observe such patients. Continual erection, at first accompanied by voluptuous sensation and emission of semen, is succeeded by total sexual apathy, the erection continuing with bloody micturition, fever, etc. The manifestations resulting from poisoning by cantharides should preferably be designated acute priapism, where also, as we shall see later on, there is continual morbid erection without voluptuous sensation.