Note 96 — III. GENERAL PATHOLOGY.[28] (continued 4)

Magnan (Arch, de Neurologie, vol. xxxiii, No. 69, 1892) gives the details of a case of sexual perversion in a degenerate individual, where the elements of fetichism and sadism were combined, and faute de mieux the sadistic impulse found satisfaction in self-mutilation. The perverse impulse began at the age of six; the sight of a boy or girl with a delicate, white skin awakened in him sexual appetite, with a desire to bite and eat a piece of the skin. While caressing a horse, the impulse to bite the soft skin of its nostrils arose, and afterward the memory of this became associated with the act of onanism. Later, he began to prick himself with pins, knives, etc., while masturbating. The desire to bite and eat skin was also provoked by the sight of shining blades, like those of scissors. He was always able to resist the impulse to attack young girls; but the struggle was hard, and for eight months he hesitated before venting his passion on his own person. He was finally arrested in the act of cutting a large piece of skin from his arm with scissors. Asked the motive of his self-mutilation, he stated that for several hours he had been following a young girl who had a fine, white skin, and was burning with desire to cut out a piece of it and eat it. On his person there were many scars of previous mutilations. The impulse was devoid of natural sexual desire. Chewing the piece of skin provoked ejaculation.—Trans.