Note 638 — Chapter XXIII

The Public Prosecutor Amschl reports in the Archives for Criminal Anthropology, 1904, vol. xvi., p. 173, a gross case of this character, in which a peasant affected with venereal ulcers, having been advised that a cure could only be obtained by intercourse with a pure virgin, had sexual intercourse with his own daughter, and—was cured!!

[639] See 1 Kings i. 1-4.

[640] E. Laurent, “Morbid Love: A Psycho-Pathological Study,” pp. 183, 184 (Leipzig, 1895). Cf. also P. Bernard, “Des Attendants à la Pudeur sur les Petites Filles” (Paris, 1886).

[641] A detailed description of this affair is given in my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. i., pp. 350-381 (Charlottenburg, 1901).

[642] Compare in this connexion more especially the apt remarks of J. P. Frank, “System of a Medical Polity,” vol. vi., pp. 94, 95 (Frankenthal, 1792).

[643] Cf. Sollier’s remarks on this subject in Von Schrenck-Notzing’s “Die Suggestions-Therapie,” p. 7.

[644] Regarding child prostitution in Berlin, numerous details are to be found in the work, “Child Prostitution in Berlin: Unvarnished Revelations and Moral Pictures by an Initiate” (Leipzig, 1895).

[645] G. Schmoller, “Elements of General Political Economy,” vol. i., p. 233 (Leipzig, 1901).

[646] Such relations can become actual, even at the present day, as we learn from the case reported by the Public Prosecutor, Dr. Kersten, in the Archives for Criminal Anthropology (1904, vol. xvi., p. 330), of a Moor, sixty-five years of age, who, in intercourse with his step-daughter, procreated a daughter, and later with this daughter of his own, when she was thirteen years of age, had sexual intercourse!

[647] G. Mirabeau, “Erotika Biblion,” p. 91 (Brussels, 1868).

[648] German authors use the word Sodomie to denote sexual relationships between human beings and animals. Mr. Havelock Ellis informs me (in a private letter) “the German use of ‘sodomy’ to include ‘bestiality’ is quite ancient, and no doubt had a theological origin. I imagine the confusion was made with the idea of throwing on to ‘bestiality’ the same reprobation as the Bible metes out to ‘sodomy.’” There is, of course, no mention of bestiality in connexion with the destruction of Sodom. The sin for which the city was destroyed was the desire for carnal knowledge of the two angels in the house of Lot (Gen. xix. 5). The signification of the various terms used to denote unnatural intercourse is thus defined by Mann, in his work on “Forensic Medicine”: Sodomy means unnatural sexual intercourse between two human beings, usually of the male sex.... Tribadism, the gratification of the sexual instinct between two human beings of the female sex.... Pederastia is that form of sodomy in which the passive rôle is played by a boy, the active agent being man or boy. Bestiality means sexual intercourse between mankind and the lower animals. Generally speaking, in this translation the terms mentioned are used as above defined. If there is any variation from that use, the context will manifest it. In any case, Sodomy has never been employed in the translation as an equivalent of the German Sodomie, the latter term having been invariably rendered by Bestiality.—Translator.

[649] Iwan Bloch, “A Remarkable Case of Sexual Perversion (Zoophilia),” published in Medizinische Klinik, 1906, No. 2.

[650] Of the recent literature on this subject I may refer to G. Dubois-Dessaulle, “Étude sur la Bestialité au Point de Vue Historique, Médical, et Juridique” (Paris, 1905); F. Reichert, “The Significance of Sexual Psychopathy in Human Beings, in Relation to Veterinary Practice,” Inaugural Dissertation (Bern and Munich, 1902); Franz Hora, “A Case of Unnatural Fornication with a Goose,” published in the Tierärztliches Zentralblatt, 1903, No. 13, p. 197; R. Froehner, “Sadistic Injuries to Animals,” published in the Deutsche Tierärztliche Wochenschrift, No. 1, 1903, p. 153; same author in Der Preussische Kreistierarzt, vol. i., pp. 487-491 (Berlin, 1904); Grundmann, “A Case of Bestiality and Sadism,” published in the Deutsche Tierärztliche Wochenschrift, 1905, No 45. A very painstaking and critical study of unnatural fornication with animals is published by Haberda in the Vierteljahrsschrift für Gerichtliche Medizin, 1907, vol. xxxiii., supplementary number. It deals with 162 medico-legal cases. Among these, two only concern girls of sixteen and twenty-nine years of age respectively, persons who have had improper relations with dogs. Most of the male offenders were persons whose occupations brought them much into contact with domestic animals; about half of them were under twenty years of age. The animals concerned were cattle, goats, horses, dogs, pigs, sheep, and hens. In the majority of cases there were fornicatory acts—acts analogous to sexual intercourse—less commonly other sexual contacts. The girl of sixteen was caught in the act of intercourse with a dog. The majority of male offenders made use of female animals. In two cases young men allowed dogs to have intercourse with them per anum, the dogs having been trained to do this, and in both of them were found lacerations of the anus and rectum. Only in a few of the 172 cases of bestiality was there any reason to doubt the mental integrity of the person concerned. In those cases there was senile dementia, epilepsy, or alcoholism. The principal causes for the practice of bestiality were enhanced opportunities, the lack of possibility in the country for conjugal or extra-conjugal normal sexual intercourse, or, finally, superstition (belief in the possibility of curing of venereal disease by intercourse with animals).

[651] Regarding the ethnology of bestiality, consult my “Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. ii., pp. 272-276.

[652] Cf. F. S. Krauss, “Bestial Aberrations,” published in “Anthropophyteia,” vol. iii., pp. 265-322.

[653] Iwan Bloch, “The Origin of Syphilis,” part i., p. 22 (Jena, 1901).

[654] The following authentic case, which occurred in the year 1902, appears to be unique. A man compelled his wife, who was amiable but somewhat weak-minded, to have intercourse with a male pointer, which he himself prepared for the act, and in course of time he made the animal complete coitus with his wife five or six times whilst he looked on (“A Horrible Case,” published in the Archives for Criminal Anthropology, vol. xiii., pp. 320, 321). A case of bestiality with a rabbit is reported by Boëteau (“Un Cas de Bestialité,” published in France Médicale, 1891, vol. xxxviii., p. 593). Regarding passive bestiality with dogs, cf. A. Montalti, “La pederastia tra il cane a l’ uomo,” published in Sperimentale, 1887, vol. lx., p. 285; Delastre et Linas, “Sodomie Bestiale” (Societe de Médecine Lègale, 1873-74, vol. cxi., p. 165); Brouardel, “Pédérastie d’un Chien à l’Homme,” (published in the Semaine Médicale, 1887, vol. vii., p. 318); Féré, “Note sur un Cas de Bestialité chez la Femme” (published in Archives de Neurologie, 1903, p. 90).

[655] The belief in vampires is in part dependent upon necrophilia. In Southern Slavonic countries the corpses of young women and girls were sometimes found which had been disinterred. The necrophilist had misused them sexually, and had then cut off the breasts and torn out the intestines (F. S. Krauss, “Anthropophyteia,” vol. ii., p. 391). In the fifth decade of the nineteenth century the notorious necrophilist Sergeant Bertrand performed similar acts.

[656] Reported by A. Eulenburg, “Sadism and Masochism,” p. 56. Another case of necrophilia, with subsequent mutilation, occurred during the night of December 21-22, 1901, in the mortuary at Weiher, on the corpse of the wife of a day-labourer. The offender, who was arrested, had, on account of intense sexual hyperæsthesia, committed other sexual offences, among them bestiality (cf. “A Case of Necrophilia,” published in the Archives of Criminal Anthropology, 104, vol. xvi., pp. 289-303).

[657] These æsthetic motives were predominant in the cases of statue-love reported from antiquity.

[658] Cf. L. Fiaux “Les Maisons de Tolérance,” pp. 176, 177 (Paris, 1892). Moreover, the well-known tableaux vivants of the variety theatre can be regarded as a lesser form of such pygmalionistic spectacles.

[659] Ch. Lasègue, “Les Exhibitionistes,” published in L’Union Médicale, 1877, No. 50.

[660] Cf. A. Hoche, “Elements of a General Forensic Psycho-Pathology,” published in the “Handbook of Forensic Psychiatry,” p. 502 (Berlin, 1901).

[661] G. Burgl, “Exhibitionists before the Law-Courts,” published in the Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, 1903, vol. lx., Nos. 1, 2, pp. 119-144.

[662] Regarding this custom of obscene gestures, which is extremely remarkable from the point of view of the history of civilization, see the second volume, now in course of preparation, of my work on “The Origin of Syphilis.”

[663] Von Schrenck-Notzing, “Crimino-Psychological and Psycho-Pathological Studies,” pp. 50-57 (Leipzig, 1902).

[664] Not to be confused with the “essayeurs,” a speciality of the brothels of Paris. These are male individuals who are hired by the owner of the brothel, in order, in the presence of clients, to carry out indecent manipulations in association with the prostitutes, and thus to induce sexual excitement in the guests, and stimulate them to fornication (cf. L. Fiaux, “Lee Maisons de Tolérance,” p. 177).

[665] Regarding secret sexual clubs, see also my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. i., pp. 400-415.

[666] Cf. L. Taxil, “La Corruption Fin de Siècle,” p. 226 (Paris, 1904).

[667] S. Freud, “Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory,” pp. 40-42.

[668] L. Lewin, the article “Opium,” in Eulenburg’s “Realenzyklopädie der Heilkunde,” vol. xvii., p. 629 (Vienna, 1898).

[669] The following interesting reports, given by A. Wernichs (“Geographico-Medical Studies,” pp. 48-50), elucidate very exactly the nature of the sexual fantasies of the opium-smoker, which have the character of an indeterminate and by no means coercive sexual desire: “It is not necessary to proceed to gratification; one is almost disinclined to bring the series of beautiful pictures to an end in this way. All the joyful sexual experiences follow one another in a peculiar and fanciful admixture. Alluring forms appear in the most stimulating postures. Often one does not seem to take part in the matter oneself. Beautiful women whom one has seen in any part of the world, at the theatre, etc., move before one’s eyes, in the most beloved games of our youth. Everything that memory and the half-dream brings us is naked, shining, delicate, luxurious—and for us alone; for me these groupings, these fountains with bathing forms, these gestures, these embraces.” It is, therefore, not simply by chance that the majority of Chinese brothels have arrangements for opium-smokers, and that, contrariwise, many opium-dens provide opportunities for sexual enjoyment. Indeed, prostitutes are said to prefer opium-smokers, precisely because the latter, as long as the effect of the opium persists, do not come to an end of their enjoyment.

[These sexual fantasies of the opium-smoker probably occur only in the initial stages of indulgence in the drug. The confirmed opium-smoker, like the man habituated to the hypodermic injection of morphine, is probably, with rare exceptions, completely impotent. Sexual appetite and power return, however, when the habit is cured.—Translator.]

[670] I refer more especially to the last letter, one directed to an onanist (pp. 42-44), as instructive in this connexion.

[671] Cf. also Alfred Fuchs, “Therapeutics of the Abnormal Sexual Life in Men” (Stuttgart, 1899).

[672] In such cases music, more especially the more emotional music of Wagner, must be employed only with great care.

Supplementary Note.—With regard to offences against morality, see the comprehensive work by Mittermaier, “Crimes and Offences against Morality” (Berlin, 1906) (gives a comparative description of the legislation of various countries). See also J. Werthauer, “Offences against Morality in Large Towns” (Berlin, 1907).