PERVERSIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE OR PARÆSTHESIA OF THE SEXUAL SENSATION

We are here concerned with sexual appetite provoked by inadequate objects. Krafft-Ebing having made a profound study of this question we shall follow his subdivisions in the main.

Perverted Sexual Appetite Directed Toward the Opposite Sex.—(A.) Sadism (association of sexual desire with cruelty and violence). History shows us a number of celebrated persons who satisfied their sexual desire by making martyrs of their victims, up to complete butchery. The most atrocious types of this kind are perhaps assassins such as "Jack the Ripper," who lie in wait for their victims like cats, pounce on them, revel in their terror, assassinate them by inches, and wallow voluptuously in their blood.

The term sadism is derived from the celebrated Marquis de Sade, a French author, whose obscene romances overflow with cruel voluptuousness. Certain reminiscences of sadism are common both in man and woman. At the moment of highest excitation in coitus it is not uncommon for one or other of the couple to bite or scratch in the ecstasy of their amorous embraces. Lombroso remarks on the brutal excesses of soldiers when excited after battle. This is so to speak an inversion of sadism as regards cause and effect. After the exaltation of combat, that of desire possesses the mind, as in the inverse direction exaltation of desire gives rise in certain cases to that of violence and thirst for blood.

Krafft-Ebing draws attention to the fact that love and anger are the two most violent effective conditions, and are at the same time the two powers which provoke the most motor discharges. This explains why they may be associated in the delirium of unbridled passions. To these facts is added an atavistic relic of the instinct of man's ancestors, the males of whom fought furiously to conquer the females by violence, which provoked desire in them, after the subjection of the object of their sexual appetite. True sadism can, however, only become effective by the combination of two causes: (1) by an exalted and absolutely pathological association of sexual desire with a sanguinary instinct, and with the desire to illtreat and overcome a victim; (2) by an almost absolute absence of moral sense and sympathy, combined with a violent and egoistic sexual passion. It is evident that the slight more or less sadic impulses which may involuntarily occur in the performance of normal coitus, are quite exempt from the second of these causes.

Krafft-Ebing maintains that sadism is usually, if not always, congenital and hereditary. Sadism is for a long time restrained by fear, education or moral sentiments. It is only gradually, when normal coitus cannot procure for the perverted sexual appetite the satisfaction it requires, that the sadist gives way to his passion; this gives the latter a false appearance of acquired vice.

The highest degree of sadism leads to assassination. In this way human tigers entice young girls into a wood and cut them to pieces. Some begin by forcing them to coitus, after frightening them, or half strangling them; others masturbate in their ripped up entrails. But some others have no desire for coitus, nor anything resembling it, their desire being satisfied only by the sight of the terror, suffering and blood of their victim, whom they torture before killing. Others again associate desire with the rage of a wild beast to such a point that they swallow parts of their victim's body and drink the blood.

Sadists become experts in the art of assassination without discovery. The cynicism with which some of them have described their sensations shows their cold indifference toward the tragic and the horrible. Krafft-Ebing describes a series of atrocious types of this kind, and unfortunately the press and the criminal law courts continually give us fresh examples. Some sadists assassinate children, others men, when their perversion is complicated with pederasty or sexual inversion. (The story of Bluebeard is probably based on the successive crimes of a sadic.)

Sadists do not always confine their attacks to living people; some of them are necrophiles, who violate dead bodies and cut them in pieces: others again kill animals, whose sufferings and blood serve to satisfy their desires.

Some sadists satisfy themselves by flogging prostitutes or pricking them till they bleed, while others prefer to martyrize their victims slowly, and thus procure the maximum of pleasure. Others again are contented with scenes symbolical of servitude, in which women are compelled to adore and supplicate them, etc. The humiliation of women takes part in the sadist appetite of man and often degenerates into fetichism. Simple imagination in which he plays the part of a tyrant, and which are complicated with onanism or normal coitus, often suffice to satisfy the sadist. Some sadists soil themselves with the excrements of the woman they "love!" When sadism assumes the character of a symbol or a fetich, seminal ejaculation and sensation generally occur without contact with the woman's body.

Sadism is more common in men, but occurs also in women. Messalina and Catherine de Médici are historical examples. The latter had her maids of honor flogged before her eyes, and said she was bathing in roses when she witnessed the massacre of the Huguenots. Women in whom sadism takes a milder form are contented with biting a man till he bleeds, during coitus.

Sadism appears to be most often an effect of hereditary alcoholic blastophthoria.

(B). Masochism (association of sexual desire with submission to cruelty and violence). The term masochism is applied by Krafft-Ebing to a form of sexual perversion described by Sacher-Masoch in several of his romances. Masochism is exactly the converse of sadism. The desire of the masochist is excited by humiliation, submission, and even blows; the pain he feels when he is flogged gives him intense pleasure. Like sadism, this perversion may be incomplete. When it is complete the masochist is affected with psychic impotence and is incapable of normal coitus. Ill-treatment and humiliation are alone capable of causing him erections, seminal ejaculations and pleasure. However, comedies representing his humiliation, or corresponding efforts of his imagination may succeed in replacing the reality and procure the desired effect.

Like sadism, masochism is hereditary and congenital. When the first sexual sensations are produced, the masochist child sighs for a dominating woman who will illtreat him and make him her slave. His imagination is transported by the idea of being on his knees, of being trodden under foot, or bound in chains by her, etc. The cruel heroine of his heart must ridicule and humiliate him as much as possible. Corporal punishment with a beneficial object does not satisfy the true masochist. Rousseau, in his "Confessions," reveals the sexual feelings of the masochist.

It is remarkable how far poetic conceptions are combined with the perversion of sexual sensations in masochists, leading them to dream of an imperious and cruel woman to whom they devote a love as humble as it is exalted, while normal coitus causes them no pleasure, and can sometimes only be accomplished with the aid of masochistic images. These images may also be accompanied by onanism. It is very common for masochists to become flagellants, and to be flogged or trampled on by prostitutes. But it often happens that they only feel pain instead of pleasure, when the comedy which they have started appears revealed in all its absurdity, showing them a woman paid to illtreat them, and not doing it for her own enjoyment. Some masochists take pleasure in imagining themselves assassinated by a woman, or even cut in pieces. Others organize theatrical performances in which imperious women play the part of judges, before whom they appear naked and are flogged and condemned to death. Others again are contented with imagining these performances, combining them sometimes with coitus or masturbation.

Krafft-Ebing is no doubt right in considering the lucubrations of the poet Baudelaire, and his necrophile imagination of his own carrion hung on a gibbet and devoured by vultures, as a mixture of sadism and masochism. He sought out the most repulsive women of all races, Chinese, negresses, dwarfs, giants, or modern women as artificial as possible, to satisfy his pathological instinct. The following case quoted by Krafft-Ebing from Hammond, is typical:

A married man and father of several children was sometimes subject to attacks during which he visited a brothel, where he chose two or three of the fattest women. He stripped the upper part of his body, lay on the floor, crossed his hands, shut his eyes and ordered the women to tread with all their force on his chest, neck and face. Sometimes he required a still heavier woman or more cruel manipulations. After two or three hours he was satisfied, paid the women liberally and regaled them with wine, rubbed his bruises, dressed himself and returned to his office, to repeat this singular performance a week later.

Krafft-Ebing describes, as masked masochism, certain cases of fetichism in which the nature of the fetich which causes sexual excitation and the manner in which it is used prove a desire for maltreatment and humiliation by a woman. This is especially the case with shoe and foot fetichism. Among those who are affected with this pathological specialty, voluptuous sensations are produced when they are trodden on by a woman's shoes or feet. They even dream of women's shoes and feet. Some of them put nails in their shoes, the pain of which gives them voluptuous sensations. Lastly, the shoes alone, especially when they touch the penis, are sufficient to excite their sexual desire. Other masked masochists are excited by the secretions or even excrements of women.

I have been consulted by a typical masochist, who, being very religious, was convinced that his perverted sexual appetite was a sin. He therefore married, thinking that God and repentance would change him. But when married he naturally found himself absolutely impotent and incapable of coitus.

If masochism is common in men, it is produced in women rather as an exaggeration in the domain of her normal sexual sensations, for it is to a great extent in harmony with her passive sexual role. Woman does not like the weak man who submits to her. She prefers a master on whom she can lean. In fact, normal women do not like their husbands to ask advice from them too often, nor to be wanting in decision and self-confidence. On the contrary they like them to be firm and even somewhat imperious, provided they are not unkind. It is notorious that many women like to be beaten by their husbands, and are not content unless this is done. This appears to be especially common in Russia. Accentuated forms of pathological masochism are, however, rare in women.

Masochism presents a certain analogy with the religious ecstasy of fakirs and flagellants who flog themselves. These individuals appear to become exalted in a kind of ecstatic convulsion with the idea of pleasing God or gaining Heaven by their martyrdom. We may add that, like sadism, masochism occurs in sexual inverts, but always having the same sex for its object. I know an old gentleman whose only pleasure consisted in receiving a shower of blows: as a boy, like Rousseau he tried by all kinds of ruses to obtain corporal punishment: when he grew up this became impossible and he devised tricks to urge schoolboys to fight each other, pretending to be angry and exciting their spirit of contradiction: the boys then pretended to fight him, and this sufficed for the rest of his life to excite erections and seminal ejaculations. This gentleman was a lawyer and told me his history, hoping that suggestion might cure him.

The eroticism produced by submission to pain and humiliation is often blended with that produced by performing acts of cruelty. These mixtures of sadism and masochism have been investigated by Schrenk Notzing, who concludes that they are intimately related.

Fetichism (production of voluptuous sensations by contact with or by the sight of certain portions of the body or clothes of woman). We have already mentioned this symptom and have seen the part it plays in some forms of masochism. A masked form of fetichism forms part of the normal sexual appetite, in the sense that certain parts of the body or clothes, certain odors, etc., especially excite the sexual desire of many people by recalling the individual to whom they belong. Therefore, parts of the body which normally excite sexual desire—the breasts, sexual organs, or other parts of the body usually covered—cannot be regarded as pathological fetiches.

The true fetichist is a very pathological being, whose entire sexual appetite, often with all its irradiations in the higher sphere of love, if we can speak of love in such cases, is limited to certain objects connected with woman. The most common fetiches are women's handkerchiefs, gloves, velvet or shoes; or their hair, hands or feet, etc. In these cases the fetich plays the essential part, and is in no way associated with the image of a woman. The fetich is the sole object of "love." The sight or touch of the fetich, the pleasure of pressing it against the heart or the genital organs, are alone capable of producing erections and ejaculations. There are even fetichists whose sexual desire is only excited by the sight of certain feminine deformities, such as clubfoot, squint, etc. Hairdressers, who masturbate after dressing women's hair, are well-known examples of fetichism.

Certain feminine costumes may serve as fetiches, and these are kept in some brothels to satisfy certain customers. Shoe fetichism is more common than that of clothes or handkerchiefs. Krafft-Ebing mentions a typical case of the psychic irradiation of fetichism; the individual in question thought it immoral and scandalous that women's shoes should be exposed in shop windows. Others blush when they see such things in the windows. Fetichism is essentially a masculine perversion. I have been consulted by a fetichist who all his life had only felt erotic at the sight of shoes; later on he married, and his sexual desire becoming more and more concentrated on pointed and fashionable shoes, especially women's, but also men's, he could only obtain pleasure with his wife when she put on the shoes he was in love with, or when he put them on himself. The sight of shoes in shop windows always made him blush, while the female body made no impression on him. He could not buy the shoes he desired most, owing to a sentiment of shame, and the sight of them was often sufficient to produce erection and ejaculation.

Exhibitionism. There is a class of individuals, especially men, whose sole sexual desire consists in masturbating in the presence of women. They lie in wait behind some wall or bush, and masturbate openly when women pass that way. In these subjects an orgasm is only produced when they are observed by women. As soon as ejaculation has occurred they fly to avoid the police. They never attempt to molest the women whose presence excites them to this performance.

These cases are not uncommon and naturally cause much scandal, so that the poor wretches seldom escape the police. These unfortunate persons who sometimes hold high social positions, have often been previously convicted, but cannot as a rule overcome their passion, which has much worse consequences for them than for the women and children whom they frighten or annoy.

Exhibitionism is not rare among insane women and I have myself treated two typical cases. I do not know whether it occurs in women of sound mind, but at all events they cannot be addicted to it without running great risk.

Sexual Inversion or Homosexual Love.—However shocking or absurd the aberrations of the sexual appetite and its irradiations may be, of which we have spoken hitherto, they are at any rate derived from originally normal intercourse with adults of the opposite sex. Those we have now to deal with are distinguished by the fact that, not only the appetite itself, but all its psychic irradiations are directed to the same sex as the perverted individual, the latter being horrified at the idea of genital contact with the opposite sex, quite as much as a normal man is horrified at the idea of homosexual union. This horror is, however, confined to sexual matters, and in no way concerns those of social life. It is therefore a question of sexual desire of man for man, and woman for woman.

What we have to deal with here has no connection with compensation as in cases of compensatory masturbation or pederasty, which are practiced, for want of anything better, by individuals whose normal sexual appetite cannot be satisfied otherwise. When excitation and desire become too strong, the purely animal (spinal) irritation of the sexual appetite may drive a man or woman to satisfy themselves by means which would otherwise disgust them.

A. Homosexual love in man. It seems absurd that the whole sexual appetite and amorous ideals of a man can be directed all his life to persons of his own sex. This pathological phenomenon, however, is as common as it is certain, although its psychological and normal import has long been misapprehended, as much in judicial circles as by the general public. It is the inverts themselves, aided by psychiatrists, who have finally thrown light on the subject. An invert, named Ulrich, announced himself publicly as the apostle of homosexual love, describing inverts under the name of Urnings, a name which is still used in Germany. Ulrich and his disciples endeavored to prove an absurdity by maintaining that homosexuals are a special kind of normal men, and by attempting to obtain legal sanction for this kind of love. Ulrich gives the name Dionings to men whose sexual appetite is normal, i.e., directed toward women. Such a pretension appears necessarily ridiculous to every man whose sexual sense is normal, and it is obviously absurd to apply the term "normal" to a sexual appetite absolutely devoid of its natural object, procreation. But this is quite characteristic of the sentiments of inverts.

Hirschfeld, of Berlin, has recently attempted to show that homosexuals constitute a variety of normal man; but he plays with words and facts, invoking the names of celebrated inverts, and wrongly asserts that inversion is not hereditary.

From the first dawn of sexual feeling in youth, male inverts have the same feelings as girls toward other boys. They feel the need for passive submission, they become easily enraptured over novels and dress, they like to occupy themselves with feminine pursuits, to dress like girls and to frequent women's societies. They regard women as friends, as persons with whom they have a fellow-feeling. They generally, but not always, have a banal sentimentalism, they are fond of religious forms and ceremonies, they admire fine clothes and luxurious apartments; they dress their hair and "fake" themselves with a coquetry which often exceeds that of women. They are not all like this, but one or other of these traits predominates in different individuals.

Their sexual appetite, usually very strong and precocious, begins with an exalted love for some male friend. I have treated a great number of inverts and have always been struck with the intensity of their passion. Among other cases, I may mention that of an invert hospital attendant, who fell madly in love with one of his comrades and covered ten meters of white tape with the name of his beloved. The most passionate love letters, vows of fidelity till death, the most ferocious jealousy toward other friends of their beloved, and even ceremonies symbolical of marriage, are daily events among the homosexuals.

The invert does not so easily become enamored of another invert as of normal men. These have a special attraction for him, but as they generally repulse him with disgust, or threaten to expose or exploit him, he is often obliged to content himself with his fellows. These gentlemen form among themselves a secret brotherhood, a kind of freemasonry which is recognized by signs.

The first appearance of the homosexual appetite with its youthful impulses, causes love and happiness to appear to the invert in a special aspect, determined by the inverted irradiation of his sexual appetite. It represents the aim of his life as an amorous union with his beloved, and shapes his idylls, his romance and his ideal to this end. But later on, when his sexual desire increases and when he discovers that the majority of men feel differently to him, that the human race is reproduced by the union of men and women, etc., he becomes unhappy. He perceives that it would be both ridiculous and dangerous to reveal his inner feelings, and generally gives way to masturbation. But all social barriers which oppose his appetite only increase his desire, and he becomes less and less able to dominate his passion for certain young men. The disgust and indignation of the latter, when they discover that they are not the object of simple affection but of perverted sexual love, are expressed only too clearly, and the poor invert sees himself condemned to perpetual torment in trying to hide his most violent desires and his most intimate and ideal aspirations, and finally to live in continual dread of being betrayed and prosecuted. It is thus easy to understand that he is happy in the discovery that his fellows form a secret society, and he associates with them immediately, when his moral sense and will are not strong enough to be proof against it.

If the invert succeeds in finding a male to his liking and with a similar degenerative state of mind to his own, he will pay him the attention that the normal man would to a woman. It is therefore reasonable to believe that this mode of inversion is likewise an expression of pathological manifestation of the individual; usually accompanied by neurosis and a like corresponding deficiency in the physical makeup of the individual.

The invert's ideal would be to obtain a legal license for marriage between men; but they are not very constant in their love and are much inclined to polyandry. Sexual love for women inspires them with contempt; they regard it as low and disgusting, at the most only good for the production of young inverts!

Homosexual love has played a much greater part in the world's history than is generally believed. The Count de Platen and Sapho were inverts. The inverts themselves maintain that it was the same with Plato, Frederick the Great, Socrates, etc.; but this is not proved. In the East and in Brazil, homosexual love is very common.

My experience agrees with that of Krafft-Ebing, that homosexual love is pathological in nature, and that nearly all inverts are in a more or less marked degree psychopaths or neurotics, whose sexual appetite is not only abnormal but usually also exalted. Insane inverts, such as King Louis II of Bavaria, a great number of the insane, affected, for example, with Pseudologia phantastica (pathological swindlers), and who are also homosexual, show the intimate relationship which exists between sexual inversion (also called "uranism") and the psychoses.

I agree with Rudin that the psycho-pathological phenomena presented by the majority of inverts are primitive and hereditary, and that they are hardly ever the effect of their tormented life, as Hirschfeld, Ulrich and their disciples maintain. The vexations, anxieties and other torments that they suffer may no doubt play a part in developing certain nervous conditions previously latent, but they can never create hereditary taints. We may admit that sexual inversion corresponds to a kind of partial hermaphrodism, in which the sexual glands and copulatory organs have the characters of one of the sexes, while the brain has, to a great extent, those of the other sex; but the phenomenon is none the less pathological.

The inverts with whom we have most to do, especially in public asylums and at the courts of justice, are cynics and debauchees in spite of the ideal which they parade; but we should be wrong in concluding that this is always the case. The cynics make themselves heard because they do not restrain themselves. In my private practice I have known many very well-conducted inverts, possessing the most delicate sentiments, who had become pessimists owing to the shame and grief of a state of mind which they hid from the world.

Inverts of this class often commit suicide, after having carried on in silence a desperate struggle against their morbid appetite, because they prefer death to defeat, which they consider a dishonor. The victims of these tragedies deserve all our pity, and sometimes our respect. Such individuals generally hold aloof from the brotherhood of inverts which they look upon with fear or disgust.

In the picture of homosexuals there are two lamentable shadows, which are largely due to the severity with which most legislations track and condemn these unfortunate beings.

(1). As soon as an invert realizes his abnormal and dangerous situation in society, in which he feels a pariah, he often makes up his mind to follow the advice of ignorant friends, and even, alas, of ignorant doctors, and try and cure himself by marriage. Sometimes he begins by visiting a brothel to see if he is capable of normal coitus with a woman. In this he often succeeds, if he is able to picture to himself a man in the person of the prostitute. He tries to persuade himself that the disgust which he felt at this experimental coitus was due to the fact that the "love" was bought; and he then decides to enter into conjugal life. This is at the same time the greatest absurdity and the worst action possible for him to commit, for his wife becomes a martyr and soon feels herself deceived, abandoned and despised. The invert treats her as a servant; he rarely has sexual intercourse with her, sometimes not at all, and only performs it with repugnance with a view to the procreation of young inverts, who will rise to his ideal. He invites his male lovers to his house and they indulge in orgies, especially when the wife, despised and neglected, has separated from him. Such marriages, which are fortunately less common since this question has been better understood, generally end in divorce, preceded by bitter and mutual deceptions. It is really criminal to favor them when we know what they lead to. (It is against such unions, and against sexual indulgence of this nature, that the law ought to exert itself.)

(2). A second very grave result of homosexual love is the continual blackmail which is levied on inverts by all kinds of scamps. Public urinals are common meeting places for inverts. The blackmailers, who know this very well, follow them there and offer themselves for money; but as soon as they find out the name of their victim and his financial position, they begin to extort hush-money, threatening to prosecute him if he does not pay what they ask. If the invert is rich or of high position he has only to yield to the extortion, emigrate or commit suicide. In this way the life of most well-to-do inverts is ruined by perpetual anxieties, emotions and torments, because their morbid appetite instinctively urges them to abandon themselves to men who feel differently to themselves.

Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Hirschfeld have written at great length on sexual inversion. The law takes a just point of view and is generally severe as regards this anomaly, especially in Germanic countries. Even homosexual love that does not affect minors nor insane persons, is a sign of degeneracy, but produces no offspring and consequently dies out by means of selection. We hope, therefore, that this type may be extinct some day, although it is still decidedly numerous, principally in the larger cities of the world. When a normal man is tormented by an invert, it is much easier to get rid of him than for a young girl to protect herself against the importunities of a man.

It is quite another thing when the invert pays his attentions to minors, or when his appetites are complicated with dangerous sexual paræsthesias, such as sadism. Not long ago the terrible case of a sadist invert, Dippold, startled civilized Europe. By the aid of cruelty and intimidation this wretch martyrized two young boys confided to him for their education to such a degree that one of them died. Legal protection of the two sexes against sexual abuses of all kinds should be extended at least to the age of seventeen or eighteen.

Sexual inversion has two curious results which have not received sufficient attention. Human society regards it as quite natural and without danger for individuals of the same sex to bathe, sleep and live together. In lunatic asylums, prisons, reformatories, etc., men are attended to by men, and women by women. The vow of chastity of Catholic priests and nuns leads in the same way to separation of the sexes. In all these customs sexual inversion has not been taken into consideration. It is not surprising, therefore, that homosexuals take advantage of this state of affairs and seek these situations which give them the opportunity for satisfying their perverted passions without running much danger. They willingly choose a career suitable for their degenerate purposes, and especially that of attendant in lunatic asylums. In the latter case they take advantage of the mental condition of the patients and their incapacity to make complaints. In public baths inverts can freely enjoy the sight of naked men.

So far we have only spoken of complete inversion; but there are transitional stages. Many individuals are neutral, animated by sensations floating between the two sexes. Krafft-Ebing even speaks of psycho-sexual hermaphrodites, who are equally attracted by either sex, and cohabit sometimes with one, sometimes with the other. I knew a married man who was very capable with his wife but in spite of this was unfaithful to her, both with men and with other women. He was convicted several times for pederasty with men and young boys, and confessed to me that he had more pleasure from homosexual intercourse than from normal connection with women, but could satisfy himself either way. An incomplete invert declared to me that his ideal would be a man.

Along with these cases there is a series of homosexuals in whom it is assumed that inversion has been acquired, because they commenced with a normal sexual desire for women. After being seduced by homosexuals, who initiate them in mutual onanism or pederasty, they are suddenly or gradually disgusted with women and become inverts (vide Suggestion). In reality, these are only relatively cases of acquired inversion. If we except the cases which depend on pure suggestion of which we shall speak later, there is a latent hereditary disposition to inversion, which is awakened on the first occasion and then develops strongly. It is easy to prove that men with normal sexual instincts immediately abandon the habits of onanism or pederasty which they have contracted through bad example or seduction, or by compensation for the want of the normal object, as soon as they can obtain normal sexual intercourse with one or more women. It is, therefore, false to regard homosexual sensations as depending on vice and depravity: they are a pathological product of abnormal hereditary sexual dispositions. At any rate, this is a general rule which has few exceptions.

Sexual inversion is so widespread that in certain countries, for instance Brazil, and even in some European towns, there are brothels with men instead of women.

I will mention here a very curious case of purely psychical but complete inversion of the sexual personality, combined with complete sexual anæsthesia:

This case is very instructive, for it clearly shows how the psycho-sexual personality may be predetermined by heredity in the brain alone, independently of the sexual organs, and even act without a trace of sexual sensation or appetite. This was undoubtedly a case of alcoholic blastophthoria and not ordinary heredity.

Krafft-Ebing describes the following scene, taken from a Berlin journal, dated February, 1894, which gives a good idea of the manners and customs of the homosexual fraternity:

"The misogynist's ball. Almost all the social elements of Berlin have their club or meeting place—the fat, the bald, the bachelors, the widowers—why not the misogynists? This variety of the human species, whose society is hardly edifying, but whose psychology is peculiar, held a fancy dress ball a few days ago. The sale, or rather the distribution of tickets was kept very private. Their meeting place is a well-known dancing hall. We enter the hall about midnight. Dancing is going on to the music of a good orchestra. A thick cloud of smoke obscures the lamps and prevents us at first from distinguishing the details of the scene. It is only during an interval that we can make a closer examination. Most of the people are masked, dress coats and ball dresses are exceptional.

"But what do I see? This lady in rose tarlatan, who has just pirouetted before us has a cigar in her mouth and smokes like a trooper. She has also a small beard, half hidden by paint. And she is now talking to an "angel" in tights, very décolleté, with bare arms crossed behind her, also smoking. They have men's voices and the conversation is also masculine, for it turns on 'this cursed tobacco will not draw.' Two men dressed as women!

"A clown in conventional costume leaning against a pillar is speaking tender words to a ballet dancer, with his arm round her waist. She has a Titian head, a fine profile and good figure. Her brilliant earrings, her necklace, her shapely shoulders and arms seem to proclaim her sex, when suddenly disengaging herself from the embracing arm she turns away with a yawn, saying in a bass voice, 'Emile, why are you so tiresome to-day?' The novice hardly believes his eyes: the ballet dancer is also a man.

"Becoming suspicious, we continue our investigations, beginning to think that the world is here upside down. Here is a man who comes tripping along; but no, it cannot be a man, in spite of the small and carefully curled mustache. The dressing of the hair, the powder and paint on the face, the blackened eyebrows, the gold earrings, the bouquet of flowers on the breast and shoulder, the elegant black gown, the gold bracelets, the fan held in a white-gloved hand—none of these things suggest a man. And with what coquetry he fans himself; how he dances and skips about! Nevertheless, Nature has created this doll in the form of a man. He is a salesman in one of the large sweet shops, and the ballet dancer is his colleague!

"At the table in the corner there is a convivial meeting; several elderly gentlemen are gathered round a group of very décolleté 'ladies' sitting over a glass of wine and cracking jokes which are anything but delicate. 'Who are these three ladies?' 'Ladies! laughs my better-informed companion; well, the one on the right with the brown hair and short fancy dress is a hair-dresser; the second, the blonde with the pearl necklace is known here by the name of Miss Ella, and he is a ladies' tailor; the third is the celebrated Lottie.'

"But this cannot be a man? The waist, the bust, the delicate arms, the whole appearance is feminine! I am told that Lottie was formerly an accountant. To-day she, or rather he, is simply 'Lottie,' and takes pleasure in deceiving men as to his sex as long as possible. At this moment Lottie is singing a song in a contralto voice acquired by prolonged practice, which a female singer might envy. Lottie has also taken female parts on the stage. Nowadays the former accountant is so imbued with his female role that he seldom appears in the street except in woman's attire, and even wears an embroidered nightdress.

"On closer examination of the persons present, I discovered to my astonishment several acquaintances. My bootmaker, whom I should never have taken for a misogynist, appears to-night as a troubador with sword and plumed cap; and his 'Leonora,' in the costume of a bride, generally serves me with Havanas in a cigar store. When Leonora removed her gloves I recognized her at once by her large chilblained hands. Here is my haberdasher promenading in an indelicate costume as Bacchus; also a Diana, dressed up atrociously, who is really a waiter at a café.

"It is impossible to describe the real 'ladies' who are at this ball. They only associate with each other and avoid the women-hating men; while the latter also keep to themselves and absolutely ignore the fair sex."

B. Feminine Sexual Inversion and Homosexual Love.—Sexual inversion is not rare in women, but manifests itself less publicly than the corresponding masculine inversion. It is called Lesbian love or saphism; and the women inverts are known as tribades. They are described in history, but may also be observed in modern towns. They satisfy their pathological appetite by degenerate practices heretofore mentioned in harmony with their inverted mentality. The feminine invert likes to dress as a man and feels like a man toward other women. She goes in for manly games, wears her hair short, and takes to men's occupations in general. Her sexual appetite is often much exalted and then she becomes a veritable feminine Don Juan. I have known several women of this kind, who held veritable orgies and induced a whole series of young girls to become their lovers, in the way we have just indicated.

Here again, as in masculine inversion, there is a true irradiated love. Inverts want to marry and swear eternal fidelity; they celebrate their betrothals, even openly, the invert in male attire representing the bridegroom; or sometimes they have secret symbols, such as exchanging rings, etc. These sexual orgies are often seasoned with alcohol.

The excesses of female inverts exceed those of the male. This is their one thought, night and day, almost without interruption. Jealousy is also as strong as among male inverts. However, these nymphomaniac inverts are not very common.

A characteristic peculiarity of feminine inversion depends on the irradiation of the sexual appetite in woman (vide Chapters IV and V). We have seen that there is much less distinction in woman between love and local sensations of pleasure, and between friendship and love, than in man. When a woman invert wishes to seduce a normal girl, it is easy for her to do so. She first wins her affection by the aid of the caresses of an exalted platonic love, which is not uncommon among women; kisses, embraces, and sleeping in the same bed are much more common among girls than boys, and little by little the invert succeeds in causing voluptuous sensations in her victim. Very often the object of these caresses does not recognize that there is anything abnormal in all this, or gives way to her sensations without reflection, and then becomes amorous in her turn. I will give an example:

A female invert, dressed as a young man, succeeded in winning the love of a normal girl, and was formally betrothed to her. Soon afterwards the woman was unmasked, arrested and sent to an asylum, where she was made to put on woman's clothes. But the young girl who had been deceived continued to be amorous and visited her "lover," who embraced her before every one, in a state of voluptuous ecstasy, which I witnessed myself. When this scene was over, I took the young girl aside and expressed my astonishment at seeing her continue to have any regard for the sham "young man" who had deceived her. Her reply was characteristic of a woman: "Ah! you see, doctor, I love him, and I cannot help it!"

What can one reply to such logic? A psychic love of this kind is hardly possible in man; but if we go to the bottom of the matter and study the nature of woman, we can understand how certain feminine exaltations may be unconsciously transformed into love, platonic at first, afterwards sexual. At first, "they understand each other so well," and have so much mutual sympathy; they give each other pet names, they kiss and embrace, and perform all kinds of tender actions. Finally, a graduated scale of caresses leads almost unconsciously to sexual excitation.

This is how it happens that a normal woman, systematically seduced by an invert, may become madly in love with her and commit sexual excesses with her for years, becoming herself essentially pathological. The case only becomes really pathological when it is definitely fixed by long habit; a thing which easily occurs in woman, owing to the constant and monogamous nature of her love.

Krafft-Ebing's cases show the same phenomena, (for instance the invert called "Count Sandor" and her victims). In these cases also young girls, seduced by inverts, fell into despair and even threatened to commit suicide when their seducers abandoned them. On the other hand, when a normal man, seduced by an invert, practices mutual masturbation the affair remains localized and limited to purely animal sensations of pleasure which do not irradiate to his psychic life; such irradiations only occur in the invert, so that his victims are always ready to abandon him without the least regret. If we except children, it therefore follows that the so-called male victims are nearly always blackmailers, or simply offer themselves for money.

In fact, the normal man entirely separates the sympathy, or even the exalted affection, which he feels for another man, from all sexual sensations, and has not the least desire to kiss or caress his best friend, still less to have sexual intercourse with him. All sensual caresses between men are, therefore, suggestive of inversion even in places where women are absent.

In the normal woman, on the contrary, as we have already mentioned, sentiments of exalted sympathy easily provoke the desire for kisses and caresses, and these caresses often cause in women a certain amount of vague sensual pleasure. When this pleasure leads to progressive tenderness and ends in mutual onanism, etc., it nevertheless remains intimately connected with psychic exaltations and sentiments of sympathy, from which it cannot be separated as in man.

In a former chapter we have described the difference between the two sexes, but nowhere is it more distinctly shown than in the relations between a female invert and her victims.

It is therefore much more difficult in woman than in man to distinguish in particular cases between the hereditary disposition to inversion, and saphism acquired by seduction or habit. The latter is common in prostitutes and libidinous women.

As we have already said, the pure female invert feels like a man. The idea of coitus with men is repugnant to her. She apes the habits, manners and clothes of men. Female inverts have been known to wear men's uniforms and perform military service for years, and even behave as heroes; their sex sometimes only being discovered after their death.

Sexual Appetite for Children. (Pederosis.)—It may be questioned whether this is a special category, for many sexual assaults committed on children are simply the effect of senile dementia, or abuse of children to satisfy an otherwise normal sexual appetite. I have, however, observed cases where children were so specially, or even exclusively, the object of the sexual appetite, that I cannot doubt the existence of a special hereditary perversion in this direction.

No doubt, most of those who abuse children are also capable of coitus with women, or else they are inverts, sadists, etc.; but with many of them sexual passion for children is so marked from their youth upward, that it shows a special hereditary disposition. For this pathological disposition, thus defined, I propose the term pederosis; that of pederasty applying to degeneracy between man and man, whatever causes lead to it. Krafft-Ebing, who does not believe in the existence of a hereditary pederosis, gives the name erotic pedophilia to the abuse of children by depraved persons.

The following are cases of exclusive and hereditary pederosis: A talented artist, possessing high moral sentiments, was affected from his youth with a sexual appetite exclusively directed toward little girls of five or six years. At the age of twelve they ceased to attract him. He was quite indifferent to adults of both sexes, and never accomplished coitus. Having recognized in good time the anomaly of his appetite, he succeeded in mastering it all his life, and through education on the subject as well as a general physical development, he neutralized these morbid desires, particularly through the training of his mind to cleaner and more wholesome topics. A great help in this type of condition is work therapy. His moral sentiments and principles were always strong enough to prevent him going any further, and he eventually obtained relief. But this condition gave rise to increasing nervous irritation and melancholic depression.

In another man, the sexual appetite, also perverted since its origin, was directed only toward boys of twelve or sixteen. At one time girls of the same age excited him, while he was quite indifferent toward adult women and men.

In rare cases the sexual appetite of certain women is directed toward little boys.

Sexual Appetite for Animals. (Sodomy or Bestiality.)[6]—A human sexual appetite exclusively directed toward animals is certainly not common. Coitus between man and animals usually takes place for want of the opportunity for normal satisfaction, or else as the result of satyriasis, nymphomania or desire for change. I have observed it especially in idiots and imbeciles who are ridiculed by girls. To console themselves, they give vent to their feelings with a patient cow or goat in the silence of the stable: for this act they get several years imprisonment, for the law on this point is severe. Certain degraded libertines satisfy their hyperæsthetic and perverted appetites with goats or even with large birds or rabbits.

There are, however, cases where a pathological sexual appetite is specially directed toward animals, and it is curious to observe the frequent preference of certain individuals for small animals which they skin (fowls, geese, rabbits), and thus put to death.

Bestiality is not rare in women who are also subject to this filthy, obnoxious and degenerative practice. Even if we put aside cases of torture inflicted on small animals and if we avoid all prejudices, we can still, in all normality, consider bestiality as a crime, manifested by the depraved mind. In fact, considered from the point of view of law and humanity, bestiality is one of the most indecent of all the pathological aberrations of the sexual appetite. Human imagination only has marked it with the stigma of moral depravement and has made it a crime. But it is recognized scientifically that it is a state of mental inferiority and often a sign of idiotic tendency, usually accompanied by a case history, tainted heredity and highly neurotic constitution. Æstheticism has reason for complaint, and more than one painter or sculptor has represented the union of Leda with the Swan. It is certainly much better for society, for an idiot or an imbecile to be castrated than for him to make a girl pregnant and breed more idiots.

In cases of this kind which I have known and which were brought to justice, I consider that the real sinner, the sodomite, should be confined to an insane asylum under medical attention, and not, as at present, to be condemned to imprisonment, thus making a martyr of him for no reason, and putting the ban of society upon him. It is needless to say that cases of sodomy complicated by cruelty or sadism, should be judged differently.

There are also other hereditary or constitutional perversions, more or less characteristic, of the sexual appetite, but we cannot enumerate all of them. We may mention, however, the erotic excitement which some men feel at the sight of statues of women, which urges them to masturbate against these statues.