Note 140 — V. PATHOLOGICAL SEXUALITY IN ITS LEGAL ASPECTS.

I follow the usual terminology in describing bestiality and pederasty under the general term sodomy. In Genesis (chap. xix), whence this word comes, it signifies exclusively the vice of pederasty. Later, sodomy was often used synonymously with bestiality. The moral theologians, like St. Alphons of Liguori, Gury, and others, have always distinguished correctly, i.e., in the sense of Genesis, between sodomia, i.e., concubitus cum persona ejusdem sexus, and bestialitas, i.e., concubitus cum bestia (comp. Olfus, Pastoralmedicin, p. 78).

The jurists brought confusion into the terminology by establishing a “Sodomia ratione sexus” and a “S. ratione generis.” Science, however, should assert itself as ansilla theologiæ, and return to the correct usage.