III. GENERAL PATHOLOGY.[28] (continued 4)

3. The Association of Lust with the Idea of Certain Portions of the Female Person, or with Certain Articles of Female Attire—Fetichism.—In the considerations concerning the psychology of the normal sexual life in the introduction to this work (vide p. 17), it was shown that, within physiological limits, the pronounced preference for a certain portion of the body of persons of the opposite sex, particularly for a certain form of this part, may attain great psycho-sexual importance. Indeed, the especial power of attraction possessed by certain forms and peculiarities for many men—in fact, the majority—may be regarded as the real principle of individualization in love.

This preference for certain particular physical characteristics in persons of the opposite sex,—by the side of which, likewise, a marked preference for certain psychical characteristics may be demonstrated,—following Binet (“du Fetischisme dans l’amour,” Revue philosophique, 1887) and Lombroso (Introduction to the Italian edition of the second edition of this work), I have called “fetichism”; because this enthusiasm for certain portions 153of the body (or even articles of attire) and the worship of them, in obedience to sexual impulses, frequently call to mind the reverence for relics, holy objects, etc., in religious cults. This physiological fetichism has already been described in detail on page 17 et seq.

By the side of this physiological fetichism, however, there is, in the psycho-sexual sphere, an undoubted pathological, erotic fetichism, of which there is already a numerous series of cases presenting phenomena having great clinical and psychiatric interest, and, under certain circumstances, forensic importance. This pathological fetichism does not confine itself to certain parts of the body alone, but it is even extended to inanimate objects, which, however, are almost always articles of female wearing-apparel, and thus stand in close relation with the female person.

This pathological fetichism is connected, through gradual transitions, with physiological fetichism; so that (at least in body-fetichism) it is almost impossible to sharply define the beginning of the perversion. Moreover, the whole field of body-fetichism does not really extend beyond the limits of things which normally stimulate the sexual instinct. Here the abnormality consists only in the fact that the whole sexual interest is concentrated on the impression made by a part of the person of the opposite sex, so that all other impressions fade and become more or less indifferent. Therefore, the body-fetichist is not to be regarded as a monstrum per excessum, like the sadist or masochist, but rather as a monstrum per defectum. What stimulates him is not abnormal, but rather what does not affect him,—the limitation of sexual interest that has taken place in him. Of course, this limited sexual interest, within its narrower limits, is usually expressed with a correspondingly greater and abnormal intensity.

It would seem reasonable to assume, as the distinguishing mark of pathological fetichism, the necessity for the presence of the fetich as a conditio sine qua non for the possibility of performance of coitus. But when the facts are more carefully studied, it is seen that this limitation is really only indefinite. There are numerous cases in which, even in the absence of the 154fetich, coitus is possible, but it is incomplete and forced (often with the help of fancies relating to the fetich), and particularly unsatisfying and exhausting; and, too, closer study of the distinctive subjective psychical conditions in these cases shows that there are transitional states, passing, on the one hand, to mere physiological preferences, and, on the other, to psychical impotence in the absence of the fetich. It is therefore better, perhaps, to seek the pathological criterion of body-fetichism in purely subjective psychical states. The concentration of the sexual interest on a certain portion of the body that has no direct relation to sex (as have the mammæ and external genitals)—a peculiarity to be emphasized—often leads body-fetichists to such a condition that they do not regard coitus as the real means of sexual gratification, but rather some form of manipulation of that portion of the body that is effectual as a fetich. This perverse instinct of body-fetichists may be taken as the pathological criterion, no matter whether actual coitus is also possible or not.

Fetichism of inanimate objects or articles of dress, however, in all cases, may well be regarded as a pathological phenomenon; since its objects fall without the circle of normal sexual stimuli. But even here, in the phenomena, there is a certain outward correspondence with processes of the normal psychical vita sexualis; the inner connection and meaning of pathological fetichism, however, are entirely different. In the ecstatic love of a man mentally normal, a handkerchief or shoe, a glove or letter, the flower “she gave,” or a lock of hair, etc., may become the object of worship, but only because they represent a mnemonic symbol of the beloved person—absent or dead—whose whole personality is reproduced by them. The pathological fetichist has no such relations. The fetich constitutes the entire content of his idea. When he is possessed by it, sexual excitement occurs, and the fetich makes itself felt.^[87]

According to all observations thus far made, pathological 155fetichism seems to arise only on the basis of a psychopathic constitution that is for the most part hereditary, or on the basis of existent mental disease.

Thus it happens that it not infrequently appears combined with the other (original) sexual perversions that arise on the same basis. Not infrequently fetichism occurs in the most various forms in combination with contrary sexuality, sadism, and masochism. Indeed, certain forms of body-fetichism (hand- and foot-fetichism) probably have a more or less distinct connection with the latter two perversions (v. infra).

But if fetichism also rests upon a congenital general psychopathic disposition, yet this perversion is not, like those previously considered, essentially of an original nature; it is not congenitally perfect, as we may well assume sadism and masochism to be. While in the sexual perversions thus far described we have met only cases of a congenital nature, here we meet only acquired cases. Aside from the fact that in fetichism the causative circumstance of its acquirement is often demonstrable, here the physiological conditions are wanting, which in sadism and masochism, by means of sexual hyperæsthesia, are intensified to perversions, and justify the assumption of congenital origin. In fetichism, every case requires an event which affords the subject of perversion. As has been said, it is, of course, physiological in sexual life to be partial to one or another of woman’s peculiarities, and to be enthusiastic about it; but concentration of the entire sexual interest on such partial impressions is here the essential thing; and for this concentration there must be a particular reason in every individual affected. Therefore, we may accept Binet’s conclusion that in the life of every fetichist there may be assumed to have been some event which determined the association of lustful feeling with the single impression. This event is to be referred to the time of early youth, and, as a rule, occurs in connection with the first awakening of the vita sexualis. This first awakening is associated with some partial sexual impression (since it is always something standing in some relation to woman), and stamps it for life as the principal object of sexual interest. The circumstances under which the association arises 156are usually forgotten. It is only the result of the association that is retained. The general predisposition to psychopathic states and the sexual hyperæsthesia of such individuals are all that is original here.^[88]

Like the other perversions thus far considered, erotic (pathological) fetichism may also express itself in strange, unnatural, and even criminal acts: gratification with the female person loco indebito, theft and robbery of objects of fetichism, pollution of such objects, etc. Here, too, it only depends upon the intensity of the perverse impulse and the relative power of opposing ethical motives, whether and to what extent such acts are performed. These perverse acts of fetichists, like those of other sexually perverse individuals, may either alone constitute the entire external vita sexualis, or occur together with the normal sexual act. This depends upon the condition of physical and psychical sexual power, and the degree of excitability to normal stimuli that has been retained. Where excitability is diminished, not infrequently the sight or touch of the fetich serves as a necessary preparatory act.

The great practical importance which attaches to the facts of fetichism, in accordance with what has been said, lies in two factors. First, pathological fetichism is not infrequently a cause of psychical impotence.^[89] Since the object upon which the sexual interest of the fetichist is concentrated stands, in itself, in no immediate relation to the normal sexual act, it often happens that the fetichist diminishes his excitability to normal stimuli 157by his perversion, or, at least is capable of coitus only by means of concentration of his fancy upon his fetich. In this perversion, and in the difficulty of its adequate satisfaction, just as in the other perversions of the sexual instinct, lie conditions favoring psychical and physical onanism, which again reacts deleteriously on the constitution and sexual power. This is especially true in the case of youthful individuals, and particularly in the case of those who, on account of opposing ethical and æsthetic motives, shrink from the realization of their perverse desires. Secondly, fetichism is of great forensic importance. Just as sadism may extend to murder and the infliction of bodily injury, fetichism may lead to theft and even to robbery for the possession of the desired articles.

Erotic fetichism has for its object either a certain portion of the body of a person of the opposite sex, or a certain article or material of wearing-apparel of the opposite sex. (Only cases of pathological fetichism in men have thus far been observed, and therefore only portions of the female person and attire are spoken of here.) In accordance with this, fetichists fall into three groups.

(a) The Fetich is a Part of the Female Body.—Just as, in physiological fetichism, the eyes, the hand, the foot, and the hair of woman very frequently become fetiches, so, in the pathological domain, the same portions of the body become the sole objects of sexual interest. This exclusive concentration of interest on these parts, by the side of which everything else feminine fades, and all other sexual value of woman may sink to nil, so that, instead of coitus, strange manipulations of the fetich become the object of desire,—this it is that makes these cases pathological.

Case 74. (Binet, op. cit.) X., aged 34, teacher in a Gymnasium. In childhood he suffered with convulsions. At the age of ten he began to masturbate, with lustful feelings, which were connected with very strange ideas. He was particularly partial to women’s eyes; but since he wished to imagine some form of coitus, and was absolutely innocent in sexual matters, to avoid too great a separation from the eyes, he evolved the idea of making the nostrils the seat of the female sexual organs. Then his lively sexual desires were connected with this idea. He 158sketched drawings representing correct Greek profiles of female heads, but the nostrils were so large that immissio penis would have been possible.

One day, in an omnibus, he saw a girl in whom he thought he recognized his ideal. He followed her to her home and immediately proposed to her. Shown the door, he returned again and again, until arrested. X. never had sexual intercourse.

Hand-fetichists are very numerous. The following case is not really pathological. It is given here as a transitional case:—

Case 75. B., of neuropathic family, very sensual, mentally intact. At the sight of the hand of a beautiful young lady he is always charmed and feels sexual excitement to the extent of ejaculation. It is his delight to kiss and press such hands. As long as they are covered with gloves he feels unhappy. By pretexts he tries to get hold of such hands. He is indifferent to the foot. If the beautiful hands are ornamented with rings, his lust is increased. Only the living hand, not its image, causes him this lustful excitement. It is only when he is exhausted sexually by frequent coitus that the hand loses its sexual charm. At first the memory-picture of female hands disturbed him even while at work. (Binet, op. cit.)

Binet states that such cases of enthusiasm for the female hand are numerous. Here it may be recalled that, according to Case 24, a man may be partial to the female hand as a result of sadistic impulses; and that, according to Case 46, the same thing may be due to masochistic desires. Thus such cases have more than one meaning. But this is by no means to say that all, or even a majority, of the cases of hand-fetichism allow or require a sadistic or masochistic explanation.

The following interesting case, that has been studied in detail, shows that, in spite of the fact that at first a sadistic or masochistic element seems to have exercised an influence, at the time of the individual’s maturity and the complete development of the perversion, the latter contained nothing of these elements. Of course, it is possible that, in the course of time, these disappeared; but here the assumption of the origin of the fetichism in an accidental association meets every requirement:—

Case 76. A case of hand-fetichism, communicated by Albert Moll. P. L., aged 28, a merchant of Westphalia. Aside from the fact that the patient’s father was remarkably moody and somewhat quick-tempered, nothing of an hereditary nature could be proved in the family. At 159school the patient was not very diligent; he was never able to concentrate his attention on any one subject for any length of time; on the other hand, from childhood he had a great inclination for music. His temperament was always nervous.

In August, 1890, he came to me complaining of headache and abdominal pain, which in every way gave the impression of being neurasthenic. The patient also said he was destitute of energy. Only after accurately directed questions did the patient make the following statements concerning his sexual life. As far as he could remember, the beginnings of sexual excitement occurred in his seventh year. Whenever he saw a boy of his own age urinate and caught sight of his genitals, he became lustfully excited. L. states with certainty that this excitement was associated with very evident erections. Led astray by another boy, L. learned to masturbate at the age of seven or eight. “Being of a very excitable nature,” said L., “I practiced masturbation very frequently until my eighteenth year, without gaining any clear idea of the evil results or the meaning of the practice.” He was particularly fond of practicing mutual onanism with some of his school-friends, but it was by no means an indifferent matter who the other boy was; on the contrary, only a few of his companions could satisfy him in this respect. To the question as to what particularly caused him to prefer this or that boy, L. replied that a white, beautifully-formed hand in his school-fellows impelled him to practice mutual onanism with them. L. further remembered that frequently, at the beginning of the gymnastic lesson, he would exercise by himself on a bar standing apart. He did this for the purpose of exciting himself as much as possible; and he was so successful that, without using his hand and without ejaculation,—L. was still too young,—he had lustful pleasure. Another early event which L. remembers is interesting. One day his favorite companion, N., who practiced mutual onanism with him, proposed that L. should try to get hold of his (N.’s) penis, and he would do all he could to prevent it. L. acquiesced. In this way the onanism way directly combined with a struggle between both parties, in which N. was always overcome. The struggle always finally ended in N.’s being compelled to allow L. to practice onanism on him. L. assured me that this kind of masturbation had given him, as well as N., especial pleasure.^[90] In this way L. continued to practice masturbation very frequently until his eighteenth year. Warned by a friend, he then began to struggle with all his might against his evil habit. He became more and more successful, and finally, after the first performance of coitus, he stopped the practice of onanism entirely. But this was only accomplished in his twenty-second year. It now seems incomprehensible to the patient—and he says he is filled with disgust at the thought of it—how he could ever have found pleasure in 160performing masturbation with other boys. Now, nothing could induce him to touch another man’s genitals, the sight of which is even unpleasant to him. He has lost all inclination for men, and feels attracted by women exclusively.

It must be mentioned, however, that, though L. has a decided inclination for the female sex, he presents an abnormal phenomenon.

The essential thing in woman that excites him is the sight of her beautiful hands; L. is by far more impressed when he touches a beautiful female hand than he would be were he to see its possessor in a state of complete nudity. The extent to which L.’s preference for beautiful female hands goes is shown by the following incident:—

L. knew a beautiful young lady possessed of every charm, but her hands were quite large and not beautifully formed, and often they were not as clean as L. could wish. For this reason it was not only impossible for L. to conceive a deeper interest in the lady, but he was not able even to touch her. L. believes that there is nothing more disgusting to him than dirty finger-nails; this alone would make it impossible for him to touch a woman who in all other respects was most beautiful. L. formerly, as a substitute for coitus, had the puella perform genital manipulation with her hand until ejaculation took place.

To the question as to what there was about a woman’s hand that attracted him in particular, whether he saw in it a symbol of power, and whether it gave him pleasure to be directly humiliated by a woman, the patient answered that only the beautiful form of the hand charmed him; that it afforded him no gratification to be humiliated by a woman; and that he had never had any thought to regard the hand as the symbol or instrument of a woman’s power. The preference for the hand is still so great that the patient has greater pleasure when his genitals are touched by it than when he performs coitus in vaginam. Yet, the patient prefers to perform the latter, because it seems to him to be natural, while the former seems abnormal. The touch of a beautiful female hand on his body immediately causes him to have erection; he thinks that kissing and other contacts do not exert nearly so strong an influence. It is only of late years that the patient has performed coitus frequently, but it has always been very difficult for him to determine to do it. Too, in coitus, he did not find the complete satisfaction he sought. However, when he finds himself near a woman whom he would like to possess, sometimes, at mere sight of her, his sexual excitement becomes so intense that ejaculation results. L. says expressly that during this he does not intentionally touch or press his genitals; ejaculation under such circumstances affords him much more pleasure than he experiences in actual coitus.^[91]

To go back, the patient’s dreams were never about coitus. When 161he had pollutions at night, they were almost always associated with other thoughts than those that occur in the normal man. The patient’s dreams are of events of his school-days. During his school-days, besides the mutual onanism described, he had ejaculations whenever he became anxiously excited. When, for example, the teacher dictated an extemporaneous exercise, and L. was unable to follow in translation, ejaculation often occurred.^[92] The pollutions that now occur occasionally, at night, are only accompanied by dreams that have the same or a similar subject,—the events at school just mentioned. On account of his unnatural feeling and sensibility, the patient thinks he is incapable of loving a woman long.

Treatment of the patient’s perversion has not yet been possible.

This case of hand-fetichism certainly does not depend on masochism or sadism, but is to be explained simply by early indulgence in mutual onanism. There is here, also, quite as little of contrary sexual instinct. Before the sexual appetite was clearly conscious of its object, the hands of school-fellows were used. As soon as the instinct for the opposite sex became evident, the interest for the hand was transferred to woman.

In hand-fetichists, who, according to Binet, are so numerous, it is possible that other associations lead to the same result.

Next to the hand-fetichists, naturally come the foot-fetichists. While glove-fetichism, which belongs to the next group of object-fetichism, seldom takes the place of hand-fetichism, we find shoe- and boot-fetichism, of which there are innumerable cases occurring everywhere, taking the place of enthusiasm for the naked female foot. There are only here and there traces of the latter enthusiasm, and these are scarcely pathological. It is easy to see the reason for this. The female hand is usually seen uncovered; the foot, covered. Thus the early associations which determine the direction of the vita sexualis are naturally connected with the naked hand, but with the covered foot.

Shoe-fetichism also finds its place in the following group of dress-fetichism; however, on account of its demonstrable 162masochistic character in the majority of cases, it has been, for the most part, described already (p. 123 et seq.).

Besides the eyes, hand, and foot, the mouth and ears often play the rôle of a fetich. Among others, Moll (op. cit.) mentions such cases. (Comp. also Belot’s romance, “La Bouche de Madame X.,” which, B. states, rests upon actual observation.)

The following remarkable case came under my personal observation:—

Case 77. A gentleman of very bad heredity consulted me concerning impotence that was driving him almost to despair. While he was young, his fetich was women of plump form. He married such a lady, and was happy and potent with her. After a few months the lady fell very ill, and lost much flesh. When, one day, he tried to resume his marital duty, he was absolutely impotent, and remained so. If, however, he attempted coitus with plump women, he was perfectly potent.

Even bodily defects may become fetiches.

Descartes, who himself (“Traité des Passions,” cxxxvi) expresses some opinions concerning the origin of peculiar affections in associations of ideas, was always partial to cross-eyed women, because the object of his first love had such a defect. (Binet, op. cit.)

Lydston (“A Lecture on Sexual Perversion,” Chicago, 1890^[93]) reports the case of a man who had a love-affair with a woman whose right lower extremity had been amputated. After separation from her, he searched for other women with a like defect.^[94]—A negative fetich.

When the part of the female body forming the fetich is capable of removal, like the hair, the most extravagant acts may be performed. Therefore, hair-fetichists form an interesting and forensically-important category. While such admirers of female hair are probably not infrequent within physiological limits, and possibly various senses (sight, smell, and hearing, through crepitant sounds,—and certainly touch, just as with velvet- and silk-fetichists, v. infra) are thus excited with an accompaniment of lustful feeling; yet, a series of similar pathological cases has also been observed, in which the hair-fetichism had become an overpowering impulse, and driven 163the individuals to commit crimes.^[95],^[96] These form the group of hair-despoilers.

Case 78. A hair-despoiler. P., aged 40, artistic locksmith, single. His father was temporarily insane, and his mother was very nervous. He developed well, and was intelligent; but he was early affected with tics and imperative ideas. He had never masturbated. He loved platonically, and often busied himself with matrimonial plans. He had coitus infrequently with prostitutes, but never felt satisfied with such intercourse—rather, disgusted. Three years ago he was overtaken by misfortune (financial ruin), and, besides, he had a febrile disease, with delirium. These things had a very bad effect on his hereditarily-predisposed nervous system. On August 28, 1889, P. was arrested at the Trocadero, in Paris, in flagranti, as he forcibly cut off a young girl’s hair. He was arrested with the hair in his hand and a pair of shears in his pocket. He excused himself on the ground of momentary mental confusion and an unfortunate, irresistible passion; he confessed that he had ten times cut off hair, which he took great delight in keeping at home. On searching his home, sixty-five switches and tresses of hair were found, assorted in packets. P. had already been once arrested, on December 15, 1886, under similar circumstances, but was released for lack of evidence.

P. states that, for the last three years, when he is alone in his room at night, he feels ill, anxious, excited, and dizzy, and then is troubled by the impulse to touch female hair. When it happened that he could actually take a young girl’s hair in his hand, he felt intensely excited sexually, and had erection and ejaculation without touching the girl in any 164other way. On reaching home, he would feel ashamed of what had taken place; but the wish to possess hair, always accompanied by great sensual pleasure, became more and more powerful in him. He wondered that previously, even in the most intimate intercourse with women, he had experienced no such feeling. One evening he could not resist the impulse to cut off a girl’s hair. With the hair in his hand, at home, the sensual process was repeated. He was forced to rub his body with the hair and envelop his genitals in it. Finally, quite exhausted, he grew ashamed, and could not trust himself to go out for several days. After months of rest he was again impelled to possess himself of female hair, indifferent as to whose it might be. If he attained his end, he felt himself possessed by a supernatural power and unable to give up his booty. If he could not attain the object of his desire, he became greatly depressed, hurried home, and there reveled in his collection of hair. He combed and fondled it, and thus had intense orgasm, satisfying himself by masturbation. Hair exposed in the cases of hair-dressers made no impression on him; it required hair hanging down from a female head.

At the height of his act, he states, he is in such a state of excitement that he has only imperfect apperception and subsequent memory of what he does. When he touches the hair with the shears he has erection, and, at the instant of cutting it off, ejaculation. Since his misfortune, about three years ago, he states that he has had weakness of memory, is easily exhausted mentally, and has been troubled by sleeplessness and night-terrors. P. deeply regrets his crime.

Not only hair, but a number of hair-pins, ribbons, and other articles of the feminine toilet, were found in his possession, which he had had presented to him. He had always had an actual mania for collecting such things, as well as newspapers, pieces of wood, and other worthless trash, which he would never give up. He also had a strange and, to him, inexplicable fear of passing a certain street; if he ever tried it, it made him ill.

The opinion (medico-legal) showed him to be hereditarily predisposed, and proved the imperative, impulsive, and decidedly involuntary character of the criminal acts, which had the significance of an imperative act, induced by an imperative idea, with an accompaniment of overpowering abnormal sexual feeling. Pardon; asylum for insane. (Voisin, Socquet, Motet, Annales d’hygiène, April, 1890.)

Following this case, is a similar one which also deserves attention; for it has been well studied, and may be called almost classical; and, too, it places the fetich, as well as the original associative awakening of the idea, in a clear light:—

Case 79. A hair-despoiler. E., aged 25. Maternal aunt, epileptic; brother had convulsions. E. says he was fairly healthy as a child, and 165learned quite easily. At the age of fifteen he had a sensual feeling of pleasure, with erection, at the sight of one of the village beauties combing her hair. Until that time persons of the opposite sex had made no impression on him. Two months later, in Paris, the sight of young girls with their hair flowing down over their shoulders always excited him intensely. One day he could not resist an opportunity to twist a young girl’s hair in his fingers. For this he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for three months. After that he served five years as a soldier. During this time hair was not dangerous for him, though also not very accessible; but he dreamed sometimes of female heads with the hair braided or flowing. Occasional coitus with women, but without having their hair effective as a fetich. Once more in Paris, he again dreamed as before, and became greatly excited by female hair. He never dreamed about the whole form of a woman, only of heads with braids of hair. His sexual excitement due to this fetich had become so intense of late that he had resorted to masturbation. The idea of touching female hair, or, better, of possessing it to masturbate while handling it, grew more and more powerful. Of late, when he had female hair in his fingers, ejaculation was induced. One day he succeeded in cutting hair, about 25 centimetres long, from three little girls in the street, and keeping it in his possession, when he was arrested in a fourth attempt. Deep regret and shame. He was not sentenced. Since spending some time in the asylum, he has so far improved that female hair no longer excites him. Set at liberty, he thought of going to his native place, where the women wear their hair done up. (Magnan, Archiv. de l’anthropol. criminelle, v, Nr. 28.)

A third case is the following, which is likewise suited to illustrate the psychopathic nature of such phenomena; and the remarkable means which induced a cure are worthy of note:—

Case 80. Hair-fetichism. Mr. X., between thirty and forty years old; from the higher class of society; single. He says that he comes of a healthy family, but from childhood has been nervous, vacillating, and peculiar; that since his eighth year he has been powerfully attracted by female hair. This was particularly true in the case of young girls. When he was nine years old, a girl of thirteen seduced him. He did not understand it, and was not at all excited. A twelve-year-old sister of this girl also courted, kissed, and hugged him. He allowed this quietly, because this girl’s hair pleased him so well. When about ten years old, he began to have sensual feelings at the sight of female hair that pleased him. Gradually these feelings occurred spontaneously, and memory-pictures of girls’ hair were always immediately associated with them. At the age of eleven he was taught to masturbate by school-mates. The associative connection of sexual feelings and a fetichistic idea was already established, and always appeared when the patient indulged in evil practices with his 166companions. With advancing years, the fetich grew more and more powerful. Even false hair began to excite him, but he always preferred natural hair. When he could touch or kiss it, he was perfectly happy. He wrote essays and poems on the beauty of female hair; he sketched heads of hair and masturbated. After his fourteenth year he became so powerfully excited by his fetich that he had violent erections. In contrast with his early taste while a boy, he was now charmed only by luxuriant, thick black hair. He experienced intense desire to kiss such hair, particularly to suck it. To touch such hair afforded him but little satisfaction; he obtained much more pleasure in looking at it, but particularly in kissing and sucking it. If this were impossible, he would become unhappy, even to the extent of tædium vitæ. Then he would attempt to relieve himself, imagining fantastic “hair-adventures” and masturbating. Not infrequently, in the street and in crowds, he could not keep from imprinting a kiss on ladies’ heads. He would then hurry home to masturbate. Sometimes he could resist this impulse; but it was then necessary for him, filled with feelings of fear, to run away as quickly as possible, in order to escape the domination of his fetich. He was only once impelled to cut off a girl’s hair in a crowd. In the act he was seized with fear, and was not successful with his pocket-knife; and, by flight, he narrowly escaped detection.

When he became mature, he attempted to satisfy himself in coitus with puellis. He induced powerful erection by kissing the hair, but could not induce ejaculation. Therefore, he was unsatisfied by coitus. At the same time, his favorite idea was coitus with kissing of hair; but even this did not satisfy him, because it did not induce ejaculation. Faute de mieux, he once stole the combings of a lady’s hair, put it in his mouth, and masturbated while calling its owner up in imagination. In the dark a woman could not interest him, because he could not then see her hair. Flowing hair also had no charm for him; nor did the hair about the genitals. His erotic dreams were all about hair. Of late the patient had become so excited that he had a kind of satyriasis. He was incapable of business, and felt so unhappy that he sought to drown his sorrow in alcohol. He drank large quantities, had alcoholic delirium, an attack of alcoholic epilepsy, and required hospital treatment. After the intoxication had passed away, under appropriate treatment, the sexual excitement soon disappeared; and when the patient was discharged, he was freed from his fetichistic idea, save for its occasional occurrence in dreams. The physical examination showed normal genitals and no degenerative signs whatever.

Such cases of hair-fetichism, which lead to attacks on female hair, seem to occur everywhere, from time to time. In November, 1890, according to reports in American newspapers, 167several cities in the United States were troubled by such hair-despoilers.

(b) The Fetich is an Article of Female Attire.—The great importance of adornment, ornament, and dress, in the normal vita sexualis of man, is very generally recognized. Culture and fashion^[97] have, to a certain extent, endowed woman with artificial sexual characteristics, the removal of which, when woman is seen unattired, in spite of the normal sensual effect of this sight, may exert an opposite influence.^[98] It should not be overlooked that female dress often shows a tendency to emphasize and exaggerate certain sexual peculiarities,—secondary sexual characteristics (bosom, waist, hips). In most individuals the sexual instinct awakes long before there is any possibility or opportunity of intimate intercourse, and the early desires of youth are concerned with the ordinary appearance of the attired female form. Thus it happens that not infrequently, at the beginning of the vita sexualis, ideas of the persons exerting sexual charms and ideas of their attire become associated. This association may be lasting—the attired woman may be always preferred—if the individuals dominated by this perversion do not in other respects attain to a normal vita sexualis, and find gratification in natural charms.

In psychopathic individuals, sexually hyperæsthetic, as a result of this, it actually happens that the dressed woman is always preferred to the nude female form. It may be recalled that in Case 48 the woman was not to take off a garment, and 168that in Case 51, equus eroticus, the woman was preferred dressed. In Case 89, of the sixth edition,—that of a man manifesting contrary sexuality,—the same preference is expressed.

Dr. Moll (op. cit.) mentions a patient who could not perform coitus with puella nuda; the woman had to have on a chemise, at least. The same author (op. cit., p. 129) mentions a man affected with contrary sexuality, who was subject to the same dress-fetichism.

The reason for this phenomenon is apparently to be found in the mental onanism of such individuals. In seeing innumerable clothed forms, they have cultivated desires before seeing nudity.^[99]

A more marked form of dress-fetichism is that in which, instead of the dressed woman, a certain kind of attire becomes a fetich. One can understand how, with an intense and early sexual impression, combined with the idea of a particular garment on the woman, in hyperæsthetic individuals, a very intense interest in this garment might be developed.

Hammond (op. cit.) reports the following case, taken from Roubaud (“Traité de l’impuissance,” Paris):—

Case 81. X., son of a general. He was raised in the country. At the age of fourteen he was initiated into the joys of love by a young lady. This lady was a blonde, and wore her hair in ringlets; and, in order to avoid detection in sexual intercourse with her young lover, she always wore her usual clothing,—gaiters, a corset, and a silk dress.

When his studies were completed, and he was sent to a garrison where he could enjoy freedom, he found that his sexual desire could be excited only under certain conditions. A brunette could not excite him in the least, and a woman in night-clothes could stifle every bit of love in him. In order to awaken his desire, a woman had to be a blonde, and wear gaiters, a corset, and a silk dress,—in short, she had to be dressed like the lady who had first awakened his sexual desire. He was always compelled to give up thoughts of matrimony, because he knew he would be unable to fulfill his marital duty with a woman in night-clothes.

Hammond reports another case where coitus maritalis could be performed only by the help of a certain costume; and Dr. Moll mentions 169several similar cases in individuals of hetero- and homo-sexuality. The cause may often be shown to be an early association, and such may always be assumed. It is only in this way that one can explain why a certain costume cannot be resisted by such individuals, no matter what person wears the fetich. Thus one can understand why, as Coffignon (op. cit.) relates, men at brothels demand that the women with whom they are concerned put on certain costumes, such as that of a ballet-dancer, or nun, etc.; and why these houses are furnished with a complete wardrobe for such purposes.

Binet (op. cit.) relates the case of a judge who was exclusively in love with Italian girls who came to Paris as artists’ models, and their peculiar costume. The cause was here demonstrably an impression made at the time of the awakening of the sexual instinct.

A third form of dress-fetichism, having a much higher degree of pathological significance, is by far the most frequent. In this form it is no longer the woman herself, dressed, or even dressed in a particular fashion, that constitutes the principal sexual stimulus, but the sexual interest is so concentrated on some certain article of female attire that the lustful idea of this object is entirely separated from the idea of woman, and thus obtains an independent value. This is the real domain of dress-fetichism, where an inanimate object—an isolated article of wearing-apparel—is alone used for the excitation and satisfaction of the sexual instinct. This third form of dress-fetichism is also the one that is important forensically.

In a large number of these cases the fetiches are articles of female underwear, which, owing to their private use, are suited to occasion such associations.

Case 82. K., aged 45, shoemaker, is reported to be without hereditary taint. He is peculiar, and has small mental endowment. He is of masculine habitus and without signs of degeneration. Previously blameless in conduct, on the evening of July 5, 1876, he was detected taking stolen female under-garments from a place of concealment. There were found with him about three hundred articles of the female toilet, among them, besides chemises and drawers, night-caps, garters, and a female doll. When arrested he was wearing a chemise. Since his thirteenth year he had been a slave to an impulse to steal women’s linen; but, after his first punishment for it, he had become very careful, and stolen with refinement and success. When this longing came over him, he would grow anxious, and his head would become heavy. Then he could not resist the impulse, 170cost what it might. He was indifferent to the source of the articles. At night, on going to bed, he would put on the stolen clothing and create beautiful women in imagination, thus inducing pleasurable feeling and ejaculation. This was apparently the motive of his thefts; at least, he had never disposed of any of the articles, but had hidden them here and there.

He declared that, earlier in his life, he had indulged in normal sexual intercourse with women. He denied onanism, pederasty, and other sexual acts. He said he was engaged at twenty-five, but the engagement was broken through no fault of his. He was incapable of insight into the abnormality of his condition and the wrong of his acts. (Passow, Vierteljahrsschrift f. ger. Medic., N. F. xxviii, p. 61; Krauss, “Psychologie des Verbrechens,” 1884, p. 190.)

Hammond (op. cit.) reports a case of passionate interest in single articles of female wearing-apparel. Here, also, the patient’s pleasure consisted in wearing a corset and other female garments (without any traces of contrary sexual instinct). The pain of tight lacing, experienced by himself or induced in women, is a delight to him,—sadistic-masochistic element.

A case probably belonging here is one reported by Diez (“Der Selbstmord,” 1838, p. 24), where a young man could not resist the impulse to tear female linen. While tearing it, he always had ejaculation.

A combination of fetichism with an impulse to destroy the fetich (in a certain sense, sadism with inanimate objects) seems to occur quite frequently (comp. Case 93).

An article of dress, which, though it has not really a private character, by its material and color, as well as by the place where it is worn, recalls under-garments, and hence has sexual relations, is the apron (comp. also the metonymic use of the word “apron” for “petticoat” in the saying, “To chase every apron,” etc.). This explains the following case:—

Case 83. C., aged 37; of a badly tainted family; of small mental endowment; plagiocephalic. At fifteen his attention was attracted by aprons hung out to dry. He bound them about himself and masturbated behind the fence. From that time he could not see aprons without repeating the act. If any one—no matter whether man or woman—with an apron on came near him, he was compelled to run after the person. In order to free 171him from this constant stealing of aprons, he was sent as a marine in his sixteenth year. In this calling he saw no aprons, and had continual rest. When, at nineteen, he returned home, he was again compelled to steal aprons, and, as a result, got into serious complications, and was several times locked up. He sought to free himself of his weakness by a sojourn of several years in a cloister. When he came out, he was just as bad as before. As a result of a new theft, he underwent a medico-legal examination, and was committed to an asylum. He never stole anything but aprons. It was a pleasure to him to revel in the memory of the first apron he ever stole. His dreams were filled with aprons. He occasionally used the memory of his thefts to make coitus possible, or for masturbation. (Charcot and Magnan, Arch. de neurolog., 1882, Nr. 12.)

In a case reported by Lombroso (“Amori anomali precoci nei pazzi,” Arch. di psich., 1883, p. 17), analogous to those of this series, a boy of very bad heredity, at the age of four, had erections and great sexual excitement at the sight of white garments, particularly underclothing. He was lustfully excited by handling and crumpling them. At the age of ten he began to masturbate at the sight of white, starched linen. He seems to have been affected with moral insanity, and was executed for murder.

The following case of petticoat-fetichism is combined with peculiar circumstances:—

Case 84. Z., aged 35; official; the only child of a nervous mother and healthy father. From childhood he was “nervous,” and at the consultation his neuropathic eyes, delicate, slender body, fine features, very thin voice, and sparse growth of beard attracted attention. The patient presents nothing abnormal except symptoms of slight neurasthenia. Genitals and sexual functions normal. Patient states that he has only masturbated four or five times, and that when he was very young. As early as at the age of thirteen, the patient was powerfully excited sexually by the sight of wet female dresses; while the same dresses, when dry, had no effect upon him. His greatest delight was to look at women with wet garments in the rain. If he met a woman having a pleasing face under such circumstances, he experienced an intense feeling of lustful pleasure, had erection, and felt impelled to perform coitus. He states that he has never had any desire to wet female dresses or to throw water on women. He can give no explanation of the origin of his peculiarity.

It is possible that, in this case, the sexual instinct was first awakened by the sight of a woman as she exposed her charms by raising her skirts in wet weather. The obscure instinct, not yet conscious of its object, then became directed to the wet garments, as in other cases.

Lovers of female handkerchiefs are frequent, and, therefore, 172important forensically. As to the frequency of handkerchief-fetichism, it may be remarked that the handkerchief is the one article of feminine attire which, outside of intimate association, is most frequently displayed, and which, with its warmth from the person and specific odors, may by accident fall into the hands of others. The frequency of early association of lustful feelings with the idea of a handkerchief, which may always be presumed to have occurred in such cases of fetichism, probably is due to this.

Case 85. A baker’s assistant, aged 32, single, previously of good repute, was discovered stealing a handkerchief from a lady. In sincere remorse, he confessed that he had stolen from eighty to ninety such handkerchiefs. He had cared only for handkerchiefs, and, indeed, only for those belonging to young women attractive to him. In his outward appearance the culprit presents nothing peculiar. He dresses himself with much taste. His conduct is peculiar, anxious, depressed, and unmanly, and he often lapses into whining and tears. Lack of self-reliance, weakness of comprehension, and slowness of perception and reflection, are noticeable. One of his sisters is epileptic. He lives in good circumstances; was never severely sick; developed well. In relating his history, he shows weakness of memory and lack of clearness; calculation is hard for him, though when young he learned and comprehended easily. His anxious, uncertain state of mind gives rise to a suspicion of onanism. The culprit confessed that he had been given to this practice excessively since his nineteenth year. For some years, as a result of his vice, he had suffered with depression, lassitude, trembling of the limbs, pain in the back, and disinclination for work. Frequently a depressed, anxious state of mind came over him, in which he avoided people. He had exaggerated, fantastic notions about the results of sexual intercourse with women, and could not bring himself to indulge in it. Of late, however, he had thought of marriage. With great remorse and in a weak-minded way, X. now confessed that six months before, while in a crowd, he became violently excited sexually at the sight of a pretty young girl, and was compelled to crowd up against her. He felt an impulse to compensate himself for the want of a more complete satisfaction of his sexual excitement, by stealing her handkerchief. Thereafter, as soon as he came near attractive females, with violent sexual excitement, palpitation of the heart, erection and impetus coeundi, the impulse would seize him to crowd up against them and, faute de mieux, steal their handkerchiefs. Although the consciousness of his criminal act never left him for a moment, he was unable to make any resistance to the impulse. During the act he felt an anxiety which was in part due to his inordinate sexual impulse, and partly to the 173fear of detection. The medico-legal opinion rightly gave weight to the congenital mental enfeeblement and the pernicious influence of masturbation, and referred the abnormal impulses to a perverse sexual impulse, calling attention to the presence of an interesting and well-known physiological connection between the olfactory and sexual senses. The inability to resist the pathological impulse was recognized. X. was not punished. (Zippe, Wiener Med. Wochenschrift, 1879, Nr. 23.)

I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Fritsch, of Vienna, for further facts concerning this handkerchief-fetichist, who was again arrested in August, 1890, in the act of taking a handkerchief from a lady’s pocket:—

On searching his house, four hundred and forty-six ladies’ handkerchiefs were found. He stated that he had burned besides two bundles of them. In the course of the examination, it was further shown that X. had been punished with imprisonment for fourteen days, in 1883, for stealing twenty-seven handkerchiefs, and again with imprisonment for three weeks, in 1886, for a similar crime. Concerning his relatives, nothing more could be learned than that his father was subject to congestions, and that a brother’s daughter was weak-minded and constitutionally neuropathic. X. had married in 1879, and embarked in an independent business, and in 1881 he made an assignment. Soon after that, his wife, who could not live with him, and with whom he did not perform his marital duty (denied by X.), demanded a divorce. Thereafter he lived as assistant baker to his brother. He complained bitterly of an impulse for ladies’ handkerchiefs, but when opportunity offered, unfortunately, he could not resist it. In the act he experienced a feeling of delight, and felt as if some one were forcing him to it. Sometimes he could restrain himself, but, when the lady was pleasing to him, he yielded to the first impulse. He would be wet with sweat, partly from fear of detection, and partly on account of the impulse to perform the act. He says he has been sensually excited, by the sight of handkerchiefs belonging to women, since puberty. He cannot recall the exact circumstances of this fetichistic association. The sensual excitement, occasioned by the sight of a lady with a handkerchief hanging out of her pocket, had constantly increased. This had repeatedly caused erection, but never ejaculation. After his twenty-first year, he says, he had inclination to normal sexual indulgence, and had coitus without difficulty without ideas of handkerchiefs. With increasing fetichism, the appropriation of handkerchiefs had afforded him much more satisfaction than coitus. The appropriation of the handkerchief of a lady attractive to him was the same to him as intercourse with her would have been. In the act he had true orgasm.

If he could not gain possession of the handkerchief he desired, he 174would become painfully excited, tremble, and sweat all over. He kept separate the handkerchiefs of ladies particularly pleasing to him, and reveled in the sight of them, taking great pleasure in it. The odor of them also gave him great delight, though he states that it was really the odor peculiar to the linen, and not the perfume, which excited him sensually. He had masturbated but very seldom.

X. complained of no physical ailments except occasional headache and vertigo. He greatly regretted his misfortune, his abnormal impulse,—the evil spirit that impelled him to such criminal acts. He had but one wish: that some one might help him. Objectively there are mild neurasthenic symptoms, anomalies of the distribution of blood, and unequal pupils.

It was proved that X. had committed his crimes in obedience to an abnormal, irresistible impulse. Pardon.

Such cases of handkerchief-fetichism, where an abnormal individual is driven to theft, are very numerous. They also occur in combination with contrary sexuality, as is proved by the following case, which I borrow from page 125 of Dr. Moll’s frequently-cited work^[100]:—

Case 86. Handkerchief-fetichism in a Case of Contrary Sexual Instinct.—K., aged 38; mechanic; a powerfully built man. He makes numerous complaints,—weakness of the legs, pain in the back, headache, want of pleasure in work, etc. The complaints give the decided impression of neurasthenia with tendency to hypochondria. Only after the patient had been under my treatment several months did he state that he was also abnormal sexually.

K. had never had any inclination whatever for women; but handsome men, on the other hand, had a peculiar charm for him. Patient had masturbated frequently until he came to me. He had never practiced mutual onanism or pederasty. He did not think that he would have found satisfaction in this, because, in spite of his preference for men, an article of white linen was his chief charm, though the beauty of its owner played a rôle. The handkerchiefs of handsome men particularly excite him sexually. His greatest delight is to masturbate in men’s handkerchiefs. For this reason he often took his friend’s handkerchiefs. 175In order to save himself from detection, he always left one of his own handkerchiefs with his friend in place of the one he stole. In this way he sought to escape the suspicion of theft, by creating the appearance of a mistake. Other articles of men’s linen also excited K. sexually, but not to the extent handkerchiefs did.

K. had often performed coitus with women, having erection and ejaculation, but without lustful pleasure. There was also nothing which could stimulate the patient to the performance of coitus. Erection and ejaculation occurred only when, during the act, he thought of a man’s handkerchief; and this was easier for the patient when he took a friend’s handkerchief with him, and had it in his hand during coitus. In accordance with his sexual perversion, in his nightly pollutions with lustful ideas, men’s linen played the principal rôle.

It is possible that, in this interest in (used) handkerchiefs, elements of feeling in the sense of masochism, group “c,” are also often at work.

Still far more frequent than the fetichism of linen garments is that of women’s shoes. These cases are, in fact, almost innumerable, and a great many of them have been scientifically studied; but I have but a few reports at second hand of the similar glove-fetichism (concerning the reason for the relative infrequency of glove-fetichism, vide p. 161).

In shoe-fetichism the close relationship of the object to the feminine person, which explains linen-fetichism, is absolutely wanting. For this reason, and because there is a large number of well-observed cases at hand, in which the fetichistic enthusiasm for the female shoe or boot consciously and undoubtedly arises from masochistic ideas, an origin of a masochistic nature, even when it is concealed, may always be assumed in shoe-fetichism, when, in the concrete case, no other manner of origin is demonstrable. For this reason the majority of the cases of shoe- or foot-fetichism have been given under “Masochism.” There the constant masochistic character of this form of erotic fetichism has been sufficiently demonstrated by means of transitional conditions. This presumption of the masochistic character of shoe-fetichism is weakened and removed only where another accidental cause for an association between sexual excitation and the idea of women’s shoes—the occurrence of which is quite improbable a priori—is demonstrable. In the 176two following cases, however, there is such a demonstrable connection:—

Case 87. Shoe-fetichism. Mr. v. P., of an old and honorable family, Pole, aged 32, consulted me, in 1890, on account of “unnaturalness” of his vita sexualis. He gave the assurance that he came of a perfectly healthy family. He had been nervous from childhood, and had suffered with chorea minor at the age of eleven. For ten years he had suffered with sleeplessness and various neurasthenic ailments. From his fifteenth year he had recognized the difference of the sexes and been capable of sexual excitation. At the age of seventeen he had been seduced by a French governess, but coitus was not permitted; so that intense mutual sensual excitement (mutual masturbation) was all that was possible. In this situation his attention was attracted by her very elegant boots. They made a very deep impression. His intercourse with this lewd person lasted four months. During this association her shoes became a fetich for the unfortunate boy. He began to have an interest in ladies’ shoes in general, and actually went about trying to catch sight of ladies wearing pretty boots. The shoe-fetichism gained great power over his mind. He had the governess touch his penis with her shoes, and thus ejaculation with great lustful feeling was immediately induced. After separation from the governess, he went to puellis, whom he had perform the same manipulation. This was usually sufficient for satisfaction. Only seldom did he resort to coitus as an auxiliary, and inclination for it grew less and less. His vita sexualis consisted of dream-pollutions, in which women’s shoes played the exclusive rôle; and of gratification with women’s shoes apposita ad mentulam, but this had to be done by the puella. In the society of the opposite sex the only thing that interested him was the shoe, and that only when it was elegant, of the French style, with heels, and of a brilliant black, like the original.

In the course of time the following conditions have become accessory: A prostitute’s shoe that is elegant and chic; starched petticoats, and black hose, if possible. Nothing else in woman interests him. He is absolutely indifferent to the naked foot. Women have not the slightest mental charm for him. He had never had masochistic desires, in the sense of being trod upon. In the course of years his fetichism had gained such power that when he saw a lady on the street, of a certain appearance and with certain shoes, he was so intensely excited that he had to masturbate. Slight pressure on the penis sufficed to induce ejaculation, in his state of severe neurasthenia. Shoes displayed in shops, and, of late, even advertisements of shoes, sufficed to excite him intensely. In states of intense libido he made use of onanism, if shoes were not at his immediate command. The patient quite early recognized the pain and danger of his condition, and, even when he was free from neurasthenic ailments, he was morally very much depressed. He 177sought help of various physicians. Cold-water cures and hypnotism were unsuccessful. The most celebrated physicians advised him to marry, and assured him that, as soon as he once really loved a girl, he would be free from his fetichism. The patient had no confidence in his future, but he followed the advice of the physicians. He was cruelly disappointed in the hope which the authority of the physicians had aroused in him, though he led to the altar a lady distinguished by both mental and physical charms. The wedding-night was terrible; he felt like a criminal, and did not approach his wife. The next day he saw a prostitute with the required chic. He was weak enough to have intercourse with her in his way. Then he bought a pair of elegant ladies’ boots, and hid them in bed, and, by touching them, while in marital embrace, after a few days, he was able to perform his marital duty. He ejaculated tardily, for he had to force himself to coitus; and, after a few weeks, this artifice failed, because his imagination failed. He felt unspeakably miserable, and would have preferred to make an end of himself. He could no longer satisfy his wife, who was sensual, and much excited by their previous intercourse; and he saw her suffering severely, both mentally and morally. He could not, and would not, disclose his secret. He experienced disgust in marital intercourse; he felt afraid of his wife, and feared the coming of night and being alone with her. He could no longer induce erection.

He again made attempts with prostitutes, and satisfied himself by touching their shoes. Then the puella had to touch his penis, when he would have ejaculation; but, if this did not take place, he would attempt coitus with the lewd woman; without success, however, for ejaculation would occur immediately. In absolute despair, the patient comes for consultation. He deeply regretted that, against his inner conviction, he had followed the unfortunate advice of the physicians, and made a virtuous wife unhappy, having deeply injured her, both mentally and morally. Could he answer God for continuing such a marriage? Even if he were to discover himself to his wife, and she were to do everything for him, it would not help him; for the familiar perfume of the demi-monde was also necessary.

Aside from his mental pain, this unfortunate man presented no remarkable symptoms. Genitals perfectly normal. Prostate somewhat enlarged. He complained that he was so under the domination of his boot-ideas that he would even blush when boots were talked about. His whole imagination was given up to such ideas. When he was on his estate, he often suddenly had to go a distance of ten miles to the city, to satisfy his fetichism with shoe-stores or with puellis.

This pitiable man could not bring himself to take treatment; for his faith in physicians had been greatly shaken. An attempt to ascertain whether hypnosis and a removal of the fetichistic association by this means, were possible, increased the mental excitement of the unfortunate 178man, who was exclusively controlled by the thought that he had made his wife unhappy.

Case 88. X., aged 24, from a badly-tainted family (mother’s brother and grandfather insane, one sister epileptic, another sister subject to migraine, parents of excitable temperament). During dentition he had had convulsions. At the age of seven he was taught to masturbate by a servant-girl. X. first experienced pleasure in these manipulations when this girl occasionally stroked his penis with her foot with her shoe on. Thus, in the predisposed boy, an association was established, as a result of which, from that time on, merely the sight of women’s shoes, and, finally, merely the idea of them, sufficed to induce sexual excitement and erection. He now masturbated while looking at women’s shoes, or while calling them up in imagination. At school the teacher’s shoes excited him intensely, and in general he was affected by shoes that were partly concealed by female garments. One day he could not keep from grasping the teacher’s shoes,—an act that caused him great sexual excitement. In spite of punishment he could not keep from performing this act repeatedly. Finally, it was recognized that there must be an abnormal motive in play, and he was sent to a male teacher. He then reveled in the memory of shoe-scenes with his former school-mistress, and thus had erections, orgasm, and, after his fourteenth year, ejaculation. At the same time, he masturbated while thinking of a woman’s shoe. One day the thought came to him to increase his pleasure by using such a shoe for masturbation. Thereafter he frequently took shoes secretly, and used them for that purpose.

Nothing else in a woman could excite him; the thought of coitus filled him with horror. Men did not interest him in any way. At the age of eighteen he opened a general store, and, among other things handled ladies’ shoes. He was excited sexually by fitting shoes for his female patrons, or by manipulating shoes that they had worn. One day, while doing this, he had an epileptic attack, and, soon after, another, while practicing onanism in his customary way. Then he recognized, for the first time, the injury to health caused by his sexual practices. He tried to overcome his onanism, sold no more shoes, and strove to free himself from the abnormal association between women’s shoes and the sexual function. Then frequent pollutions, with erotic dreams about shoes, occurred, and the epileptic attacks continued. Though devoid of the slightest feeling for the female sex, he determined on marriage, which seemed to him to be the only remedy.

He married a pretty young lady. In spite of lively erections when he thought of his wife’s shoes, in attempts at cohabitation he was absolutely impotent; for his distaste for coitus, and for close intercourse in general, was far more powerful than the influence of the shoe-idea, which induced sexual excitement. On account of his impotence, the patient applied to Dr. Hammond, who treated his epilepsy with bromides, 179and advised him to hang a shoe up over his bed, and look at it fixedly during coitus, at the same time imagining his wife to be a shoe. The patient became free from epileptic attacks, and potent so that he could have coitus about once a week. Too, his sexual excitation by women’s shoes grew less and less. (Hammond, “Sexual Impotence.”)

Following these two cases of shoe-fetichism, which apparently depend merely upon accidental association, and are not favored by any inner relation between the things themselves, is given the very strange case of a fetichist who was excited sexually only by the idea of a night-cap on the head of an ugly old woman; also a case arising apparently from merely accidental association:—

Case 89. L., aged 37, clerk, from tainted family, had his first erection at five years, when he saw his bed-fellow—an aged relative—put on a night-cap. The same thing occurred later, when he saw an old servant put on her night-cap. Later, simply the idea of an old, ugly woman’s head, covered with a night-cap, was sufficient to cause an erection. Simply the sight of a cap, or of a naked woman or man, made no impression, but the mere touch of a night-cap induced erection, and sometimes even ejaculation. L. was not a masturbator, and had never been sexually active until his thirty-second year, when he married a young girl with whom he had fallen in love. On his marriage-night he remained cold until, from necessity, he brought to his aid the memory-picture of an ugly woman’s head with a night-cap. Coitus was immediately successful. Thereafter it was always necessary for him to use this means. Since childhood he had been subject to occasional attacks of depression, with tendency to suicide, and now and then to frightful hallucinations at night. When looking out of windows, he became dizzy and anxious. He was a perverse, peculiar, and easily embarrassed man, of bad mental constitution. (Charcot and Magnan, Arch. de neurol., 1882, No. 12.)

In this very peculiar case, the simultaneous coincidence of the first sexual excitation and an absolutely heterogeneous impression seems to have determined the association.

Hammond (op. cit.) also mentions a case of accidental associative fetichism that is quite as peculiar. A married man, aged 30, who, in other respects, was healthy, physically and mentally, is said to have suddenly lost his sexual power, after moving to another house, and to have regained it as soon as the furniture of the sleeping-room had been arranged as it was before.

180(c) The Fetich is Some Special Material.—There is a third principal group of fetichists who have as a fetich neither a portion of the female body nor a part of female attire, but some particular material which is so used, not because it is a material for female garments, but because in itself it can arouse or increase sexual feelings. In many cases of this kind, the act of feeling of such material during the sexual act seems indispensable, in order to make the latter possible, or at least satisfactory. Such materials are furs, velvet, and silk.

These cases differ from the foregoing instances of erotic dress-fetichism, in that these materials, unlike female linen, do not have any close relation to the female body; and, unlike shoes and gloves, they are not related to certain parts of the person which have peculiar symbolic significance. Moreover, this fetichism cannot be due to an accidental association, like that in the cases of the night-caps and the arrangement of the sleeping-room; for these cases form an entire group having the same object. It must be presumed that certain tactile sensations (a kind of tickling which stands in some distant relation to lustful sensations?), in hyperæsthetic individuals, furnish the occasion for the origin of this fetichism.

The following is a personal observation of a man affected with this peculiar fetichism:—

Case 90. N. N., aged 37; of a neuropathic family; neuropathic constitution. He makes the following statement: “From my earliest youth I have always had a deeply-rooted partiality for furs and velvet, in that these materials cause me sexual excitement, and the sight and touch of them give me lustful pleasure. I can recall no event that caused this peculiarity (such as the simultaneous occurrence of the first sexual excitation and an impression of these materials,—i.e., first excitation by a woman dressed in them); in fact, I cannot remember when this enthusiasm began. However, by this I would not exclude the possibility of such an event,—of an accidental connection in a first impression and consequent association; but I think it very improbable that such a thing took place, because I believe such an occurrence would have deeply impressed me. All I know is, that even when a small child I had a lively desire to see and stroke furs, and thus had an obscure sensual pleasure. With the first occurrence of definite sexual ideas,—i.e., the direction of sexual thoughts to woman,—the peculiar preference for women dressed in such materials was 181present. Since then, up to mature manhood, it has remained unchanged. A woman wearing furs or velvet, or, better, both, excites me much more quickly and intensely than one devoid of these auxiliaries. To be sure, these materials are not a conditio sine qua non of excitation; the desire occurs also without them, in response to the usual stimuli; but the sight and, particularly, the touch of these fetich-materials form for me a powerful aid to other normal stimuli, and intensify erotic pleasure. Often merely the sight of only a passably pretty girl, dressed in these materials, causes me lively excitement, and overcomes me completely. Even the sight of my fetich-materials gives me pleasure, but the touch of them much more. (To the penetrating odor of furs I am indifferent—rather, it is unpleasant—and it is endurable only by reason of the association with pleasing visual and tactile impressions.) I have an intense longing to touch these materials while on a woman’s person, to stroke and kiss them, and bury my face in them. My greatest pleasure is, inter actum, to see and feel my fetich on the woman’s shoulder.

“Fur, or velvet alone, exerts on me the effect described, the former much more intensely than the latter. The combination of the two has the most intense effect. Too, female garments of velvet and fur, seen and touched without the wearer, cause me sexual excitement; indeed, though to a less extent, the same effect is exerted by furs or robes having no relation to female attire, and also by the velvet and plush of furniture and drapery. Merely pictures of costumes of furs and velvet are objects of erotic interest to me; indeed, simply the word “fur” has a magic charm for me, and immediately calls up erotic ideas.

“Fur is such an object of sexual interest for me that a man wearing fur that is effective (v. infra) makes a very unpleasant, repugnant, and disgusting impression on me; such as would be made on a normal person by a man in the costume and attire of a ballet-dancer. Similarly repugnant to me is the sight of an old or ugly woman clad in beautiful furs; because opposing feelings are thus aroused.

“This erotic delight in furs and velvet is something entirely different from simple æsthetic pleasure. I have a very lively appreciation of beautiful female attire, and, at the same time, a particular partiality for point-lace; but it is purely of an æsthetic nature. A woman dressed in a point-lace toilette (or in other elegant, elaborate attire) is more beautiful than another; but one dressed in my fetich-material is more charming.

“But furs exercise on me the effect described only when the fur has very thick, fine, smooth, and rather long hair, that stands out like that of the so-called bearded furs. I have noticed that the effect depends upon this. I am entirely indifferent not only to the common coarse, bushy furs, but also to those that are commonly regarded as beautiful and precious, from which the long hair has been removed (seal, beaver), or of which the hair is naturally short (ermine); and likewise to those of which the hair is over-long and lies down (monkey, bear). The specific 182effect is exerted only by the standing long hair of the sable, marten, skunk, etc. But velvet is made of thick, fine, standing hairs (fibres); and its effect may be due to this. The effect seems to depend upon a very definite impression of the points of thick, fine hair upon the end-organs of the sensory nerves.

“But how this peculiar impression on the tactile nerves is related to sexual instinct is a perfect enigma to me. The fact is, that this is the case with many men. I would also state expressly that beautiful female hair pleases me, but plays no more important part than the other charm; and that while touching fur I have no thought of female hair. The tactile sensation, also, has not the least resemblance to that imparted by female hair. There is never association of any other idea. Fur, per se, arouses sensuality in me,—how, I cannot explain.

“The mere æsthetic effect, the beauty of costly furs, to which every one is more or less susceptible; which, since Raphael’s Fornarina and Reuben’s Helene Fourment, has been used as the foil and frame of female beauty by innumerable painters; and which plays so important a rôle in fashion,—the art and science of female dress,—this æsthetic effect, as has been remarked, explains nothing here. Beautiful furs have the same æsthetic effect on me as on normal individuals, and affect me in the same way that flowers, ribbons, precious stones, and other ornaments affect every one. Such things, when skillfully used, enhance female beauty, and thus, under certain circumstances, may have an indirect sensual effect. They never have a direct, powerful, sensual effect on me, as do the fetich-materials mentioned.

“Though in me, and, in fact, in all ‘fetichists,’ the sensual and æsthetic effect must be strictly differentiated, nevertheless, that does not prevent me from demanding in my fetich a whole series of æsthetic qualities in form, style, color, etc. I could give a very lengthy description of these qualities that my taste demands; but I omit it as not being essential to the real subject in hand. I would only call attention to the fact that erotic fetichism is complicated with purely æsthetic tastes.

“The specific erotic effect of my fetich-materials can be explained no better by the association with the idea of the person of the female wearing them, than by their æsthetic impression. For, in the first place, as has been said, these materials, as such, affect me when entirely isolated from the body; and, in the second place, articles of clothing of a much more private nature, and which undoubtedly call up associations, exert a much weaker influence over me. Thus the fetich-materials have an independent sensual value for me; why, is an enigma to me.

“Feathers in women’s hats, fans, etc., have the same erotic fetichistic effect on me as furs and velvet (similar tactile sensation of airy, peculiar tickling). Finally, the fetichistic effect, with much less intensity, is exerted by other smooth materials (satin and silk); but rough goods (cloth, flannel) have a repelling effect.

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

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

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

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

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

Case 93. In July, 1891, Alfred Bachmann, aged 25, locksmith, was brought before Judge I., in the second term of the criminal court, in Berlin. In April, 1891, the police had had numerous complaints, according to which some evil hand had cut women’s dresses with a very sharp instrument. On April 25, they were successful in arresting the perpetrator 184in the person of the accused. A policeman noticed how the accused pressed, in a remarkable manner, against a lady in the company of a gentleman, while they were going through a passage. The officer requested the lady to examine her dress, while he held the man under suspicion. It was ascertained that the dress had received quite a long slit. The accused was taken to the station, where he was examined. Besides a sharp knife, which he confessed he used for cutting dresses, two silk sashes, such as ladies wear on their dresses, were found on him; he also confessed that he had taken these from dresses in crowds. Finally, the examination of his person brought to light a lady’s silk neck-cloth. The accused said he had found this. Since his statement in this case could not be refuted, complaint was therefore made to rest on the result of the search; in two instances in which complaint was made by the injured parties his acts were designated as injury to property, and in two other instances as theft. The accused, a man who had been often punished before, with a pale, expressionless face, before the judge, gave a strange explanation of his enigmatical action. A major’s cook had once thrown him down-stairs when he was begging of her, and since that time he had entertained great hatred of the whole female sex. There was a doubt about his responsibility, and he was therefore examined by a physician. The medical expert gave the opinion, at the final trial, that there was no reason to regard the accused as insane, though he was of low intelligence. The culprit defended himself in a peculiar manner. An irresistible impulse forced him to approach women wearing silk dresses. The touch of silk material gave him a feeling of delight, and this went so far that, while in prison for examination, he had been excited if a silk thread happened to pass through his fingers while raveling rags. Judge Müller considered the accused to be simply a dangerous, vicious man, who should be made harmless for a long time. He advised imprisonment for one year. The court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment, with loss of honor for a year.

The following case was communicated to me by a physician:—

In a brothel a certain man was known by the name of “Velvet.” He dressed a puella pleasing to him in a black velvet dress, and excited and satisfied his sexual appetite simply by stroking his face with a part of the velvet skirt, touching the woman in no other way.

I am assured by an officer that, among masochists, a partiality for furs, velvet, and feathers, is very frequent (comp. Case 44). In the novels of Sacher-Masoch, fur plays an important part; indeed, it furnishes a title to some of them. The explanation given there seems far-fetched and unsatisfactory,—that 185fur (ermine) is the symbol of royalty, and therefore the fetich of the men described in the novels.

II. Great Diminution or Complete Absence of Sexual Feeling for the Opposite Sex, with Substitution of Sexual Feeling and Instinct for the Same Sex. (Homo-sexuality, or Contrary Sexual Instinct).

After the attainment of complete sexual development, among the most constant elements of self-consciousness in the individual, are the knowledge of representing a definite sexual personality and the consciousness of desire, during the period of physiological activity of the reproductive organs (production of semen and ova), to perform sexual acts corresponding with that sexual personality,—acts which, consciously or unconsciously, have a procreative purpose.

The sexual instinct and desire, save for indistinct feelings and impulses, remain latent until the period of development of the sexual organs. The child is generis neutrius; and though, during this latent period,—when sexuality has not yet risen into clear consciousness, is but virtually present, and unconnected with powerful organic sensations,—too early excitation of the genitals may occur, either spontaneously or as a result of external influence, and find satisfaction in masturbation; yet, notwithstanding this, the psychical relation to persons of the opposite sex is still absolutely wanting, and the sexual acts during this period partake more or less of a reflex spinal nature.

The fact of innocence, or of sexual neutrality, is the more remarkable, since very early, in education, employment, dress, etc., the child undergoes a differentiation from children of the opposite sex. These impressions, however, remain destitute of mental meaning, because they apparently are without sexual coloring; for the central organ (cortex) of sexual emotions and ideas is not yet capable of activity, owing to its undeveloped condition.

With the inception of anatomical and functional development of the generative organs, and the differentiation of form belonging to each sex, which goes hand in hand with it in the boy or girl, rudiments of a mental feeling corresponding with 186the sex are developed; and in this, of course, education and external influences in general have a powerful effect upon the individual, who is now all attention.

If the sexual development is normal and undisturbed, a definite character, corresponding with the sex, is developed. Certain definite inclinations and reactions in intercourse with persons of the opposite sex arise; and it is psychologically worthy of note with what relative rapidity the definite mental type corresponding with the sex is evolved.

While modesty, for example, during childhood, is essentially but an uncomprehended and incomprehensible exaction of education and imitation, and in the innocence and näiveté of the child but imperfectly expressed; in the youth and maiden it becomes an imperative requirement of self-respect; and, if in any way it is offended, intense vasomotor reaction (blushing) and psychical emotion are induced.

If the original constitution is favorable and normal, and factors injurious to the psycho-sexual development exercise no influence, then a psycho-sexual personality is developed that is so unchangeable, and corresponds so completely and harmoniously with the sex the individual represents, that subsequent loss of the generative organs (as by castration), or the climacteric or senility, cannot essentially alter it. But this, of course, is not to declare that the castrated man or woman, the youth and the aged man, the maiden and matron, the impotent and the potent man, do not differ essentially from one another mentally.

An interesting and important question for what follows is, whether the peripheral influences of the generative glands (testes and ovaries), or central cerebral conditions, are the determining factors in psycho-sexual development. The fact that congenital deficiency of the generative glands, or removal of them before puberty, has a great influence on physical and psycho-sexual development, so that the latter is distorted and assumes a type more closely resembling the opposite sex (eunuchs, certain viragoes, etc.), betokens their great importance in this respect.

But that the physical processes taking place in the genital 187organs are only co-operative, and not the exclusive factors in the process of development of the psycho-sexual character, is shown by the fact that, notwithstanding a normal anatomical and physiological state of these organs, a sexual instinct may be developed which is the exact opposite of that characteristic of the sex to which the individual belongs.

In this case, the cause is to be sought only in an anomaly of central conditions,—in an abnormal psycho-sexual constitution. This constitution, as far as its anatomical and functional foundation is concerned, is absolutely unknown. Since, in almost all such cases, the individual subject to the perverse sexual instinct displays a neuropathic predisposition in several directions, and the latter may be brought into relation with hereditary degenerate conditions, this anomaly of psycho-sexual feeling may be called, clinically, a functional sign of degeneration. This perverse sexuality appears spontaneously, without external cause, with the development of sexual life, as an individual manifestation of an abnormal form of the vita sexualis, and then has the force of a congenital phenomenon; or it develops upon a sexuality the beginning of which was normal, as a result of very definite injurious influences, and thus appears as an acquired anomaly. Upon what this enigmatical phenomenon of acquired homo-sexual instinct depends is still inexplicable, and only a matter for hypothesis. Careful examination of the so-called acquired cases makes it probable that the predisposition also present here consists of a latent homo-sexuality, or, at least, bi-sexuality, which, for its manifestation, requires the influence of accidental exciting causes to rouse it from its slumber.

In so-called contrary sexual instinct there are degrees of the phenomenon which quite correspond with the degrees of predisposition of the individuals. Thus, in the milder cases, there is simple hermaphroditism; in more pronounced cases, only homo-sexual feeling and instinct, but limited to the vita sexualis; in still more complete cases, the whole psychical personality, and even the bodily sensations, are transformed to correspond with the sexual perversion; and, in the complete cases, the physical form is correspondingly altered.

188The following division of the various phenomena of this psycho-sexual anomaly is made, therefore, in accordance with these clinical facts:—

A. Homo-sexual Feeling as an Acquired Manifestation.—The determining condition here is the demonstration of perverse feeling for the same sex; not the proof of sexual acts with the same sex. These two phenomena must not be confounded with each other; perversity must not be taken for perversion.

Perverse sexual acts, not dependent upon perversion, often come under observation. This is especially true with reference to sexual acts between persons of the same sex, particularly pederasty. Here paræsthesia sexualis is not necessarily at work; but hyperæsthesia, with physical or mental impossibility of natural sexual satisfaction. Thus we find homo-sexual intercourse in impotent masturbators or debauchees, or faute de mieux in sensual men and women in imprisonment, on ship-board, in garrisons, bagnios, boarding-schools, etc.

There is an immediate return to normal sexual intercourse as soon as obstacles to it are removed. Very frequently the cause of such temporary aberration is masturbation and its results in youthful individuals.

Nothing is so prone to contaminate—under certain circumstances, even to exhaust—the source of all noble and ideal sentiments, which arise of themselves from a normally developing sexual instinct, as the practice of masturbation in early years. It despoils the unfolding bud of perfume and beauty, and leaves behind only the coarse, animal desire for sexual satisfaction. If an individual, spoiled in this manner, reaches an age of maturity, there is wanting in him that æsthetic, ideal, pure, and free impulse which draws one toward the opposite sex. Thus the glow of sensual sensibility wanes, and the inclination toward the opposite sex becomes weakened. This defect influences the morals, character, fancy, feeling, and instinct of the youthful masturbator, male or female, in an unfavorable way, and, under certain circumstances, allows the desire for the opposite sex to sink to nil; so that masturbation is preferred to the natural mode of satisfaction.

189Sometimes the development of higher sexual feelings toward the opposite sex suffers, on account of hypochondriacal fear of infection in sexual intercourse; or on account of an actual infection; or they suffer as a result of a faulty education which points out such dangers and exaggerates them. Again (especially in females), fear of the result of coitus (pregnancy), or abhorrence of men, by reason of mental or moral weakness, may direct into perverse channels an instinct that makes itself felt with abnormal intensity. But too early and perverse sexual satisfaction injures not merely the mind, but also the body; inasmuch as it induces neuroses of the sexual apparatus (irritable weakness of the centres governing erection and ejaculation; defective pleasurable feeling in coitus), while, at the same time, it maintains the imagination and libido in continuous excitement.

Almost every masturbator at last reaches a point where, frightened on learning the results of the vice, or on experiencing them (neurasthenia), or led by example or seduction to the opposite sex, he wishes to free himself of the vice and re-instate his vita sexualis. The moral and mental conditions are the most unfavorable possible. The pure glow of sexual feeling is destroyed; the fire of sexual instinct is wanting, and self-confidence, no less; for every masturbator is more or less timid and cowardly. If the youthful sinner at last comes to make an attempt at coitus, he is either disappointed because enjoyment is wanting, on account of defective sensual feeling, or he is lacking in the mental strength necessary to accomplish the act. The fiasco has a fatal effect, and leads to absolute psychical impotence. A bad conscience and the memory of past failures prevent success in any further attempts. The constant libido sexualis, however, demands satisfaction; but this moral and mental perversion separates him further and further from women. For various reasons, however (neurasthenic complaints, hypochondriacal fear of the results, etc.), the individual is kept from masturbation. Occasionally, under such circumstances, there may be bestiality. Intercourse with the same sex is then near at hand,—as a result of occasional seduction or of the feelings of 190friendship which, on the level of pathological sexuality, easily associate themselves with sexual feelings. Passive and mutual onanism then becomes the equivalent of the avoided act. If there is a seducer,—which, unfortunately, is so frequent,—then the cultivated pederast is produced,—i.e., a man who performs quasi acts of onanism with persons of his own sex, and, at the same time, feels and prefers himself in an active rôle corresponding with his real sex; who is mentally indifferent not only to persons of the opposite sex, but also to those of his own sex.

Sexual aberration in the normally constituted, untainted, mentally healthy individual, reaches this degree. No case has been demonstrated in which perversity has been transformed into perversion,—into a reversal of the sexual instinct.^[101]

With tainted individuals, the matter is quite different. The latent perverse sexuality is developed under the influence of neurasthenia induced by masturbation, abstinence, or otherwise.

Gradually, in contact with persons of the same sex, sexual excitation by them is induced. Related ideas are colored with 191lustful feelings, and awaken corresponding desires. This decidedly degenerate reaction is the beginning of a process of physical and mental transformation, a description of which is attempted in what follows, and which is one of the most interesting psychological phenomena that has been observed. This metamorphosis presents different stages, or degrees.

I. Degree: Simple Reversal of Sexual Feeling.—This degree is attained when persons of the same sex have an aphrodisiac effect, and the individual has a sexual feeling for them. Character and feeling, however, still correspond with the sex of the individual presenting the reversal of sexual feeling. He feels himself in the active rôle; he recognizes his impulse toward his own sex as an aberration, and finally seeks aid. With episodical improvement of the neurosis, at first even normal sexual feelings may re-appear and assert themselves. The following case seems well suited to exemplify this stage of the psycho-sexual degeneration:—

Case 94. Acquired Contrary Sexual Instinct.—“I am an official, and, as far as I know, come of an untainted family. My father died of an acute disease; my mother is living and is quite nervous. A sister has been very intensely religious for some years.

“I myself am tall, and, in speech, gait, and manner, give a perfectly masculine impression. Measles is the only disease I have had; but since my thirteenth year I have suffered with so-called nervous headache. My sexual life began in my thirteenth year, when I became acquainted with a boy somewhat older than myself, with whom I took pleasure in mutual fondling of the genitals. I had the first ejaculation in my fourteenth year. Seduced to onanism by two older school-mates, I practiced it partly with others and partly alone; in the latter case, however, always with the thought of persons of the female sex. My libido sexualis was very great, as it is to-day. Later, I tried to win a pretty, stout servant-girl who had very large mammæ; id solum assecutus sum, ut me praesente superiorem corporis sui partem enudaret mihique concederet os mammasque osculari, dum ipsa penem meum valde erectum in manum suam recepit eumque trivit.

“Notwithstanding my urgent demand for coitus, she would not allow it; but she finally permitted me to touch her genitals.

“After going to the University, I visited a brothel and succeeded without especial effort.

“There an event occurred which brought a change in me. One 192evening I accompanied a friend home, and in a mild state of intoxication I grasped him ad genitalia. He made but slight opposition. I then went up to his room with him, and we practiced mutual masturbation. From that time we indulged in it quite frequently; in fact, it came to immissio penis in os, with resultant ejaculations. But it is strange that I was not at all in love with this person, but passionately in love with another friend, near whom I never felt the slightest sexual excitement, and whom I never connected with sexual matters, even in thought. My visits to brothels, where I was gladly received, became more infrequent; in my friend I found a substitute, and did not desire sexual intercourse with women.