"I am very healthy and strong, fond of riding, fishing, and
    shooting. I lead a very active life. I am neither musician nor
    artist, but fond of hearing music and I admire works of art.

    "In person I am 6 feet high, inclined to fat; my body is very
    strong; my penis is six inches long in repose and eight in
    erection; I can without fatigue discharge twice in the night and
    have connection at least twice a week. My scrotum is tense and
    both testicles large. I am rather slow at discharging. I have
    never had any desire to have connection with any other woman
    since marriage, but several times I have met men who attracted
    me. I have a friend (another doctor) who is very familiar with me
    and if we spend a night together we will play with each other. I
    have a great desire for him to circumcize me. We have never
    indulged in anything beyond feeling or pressing our bodies
    together like schoolboys.

    "My favorite color is green.

    "My erotic dreams, when I have any, are of my wife or of a male
    lover.

    "Sexual inversion is more widespread than is popularly supposed
    and I have never had any twinge of conscience after any of my
    affairs. I regard the homosexual instinct as quite natural, and,
    except in regard to my wife, it is stronger in my case than the
    heterosexual instinct. I have never initiated a youth into the
    sexual life or had any desire to seduce a girl. Boys under 17, or
    persons of lower social class, have no attraction for me."

    HISTORY XXXIII.--M.O., 30 years of age, born in the United
    States, of English father and of mother whose father was
    Scotch,--the rest of his ancestry being English of long standing
    in America, with a very little admixture of Dutch blood. He is 5
    feet 8 inches in height, and has brown hair and eyes. No
    hereditary troubles so far as known. In childhood, for some time
    "threatened with chorea." Is subject to tonsillitis and a
    stubborn though not severe form of indigestion, induced by
    sedentary habits. He is of quick, nervous temperament. Has an
    aversion from most outdoor sports, but a great esthetic
    attraction to nature. Highly educated.

    As far back as he can remember, he lived in a house from which
    his parents removed when he was 4 years old. Before this removal,
    he remembers two distinctly sexual experiences. A cousin five
    years older was in the bathroom, seated, and M.O. was feeling his
    sexual organs; his mother called him out. On another occasion he
    was in a wagonhouse with a girl of his own age. They were lying
    on a carriage-seat attempting intercourse. The girl's older
    sister came in and found them. She said: "I am going to tell
    mamma; you know she said for you not to do that any more." With
    each of these clear memories comes the strong impression that it
    was but one among many. Five years ago M.O. met a man of his own
    age who had lived in that neighborhood at the same time.
    Comparing notes, they found that nearly all the small children in
    it had been given to such practices. The neighborhood was a
    thoroughly "respectable" middle-class one.

    From it, M.O. removed to another of just about the same
    character, and lived there until he was 11 years old. Of this
    period his memories are very fresh and abundant. With a single
    exception, all the children between 5 and 14 years of age appear
    to have indulged freely in promiscuous sexual play. In little
    companies of from four to twelve they went where trees or long
    grass hid them from observation, and exhibited their persons to
    one another; sometimes, also, they handled one another, but not
    in the way of masturbation. Of this last, M.O. was wholly
    ignorant. Sometimes when but two or three were together,
    intercourse was attempted. In M.O.'s case there was eager sexual
    curiosity, and a more or less keen desire, but actual contact
    brought no great satisfaction. On two or three occasions girls
    practised _fellatio_, and he then reciprocated with
    _cunnilinctus_, but without pleasure. In all these plays he is
    sure that girls took the initiative as often as boys did.

    During all this period, M.O. had now one girl sweetheart and now
    another. This was conventional among the children, and was
    fostered by the banter of older persons. M.O.'s sexual curiosity
    was certainly greater in regard to the opposite sex. At this
    time, however, his homosexual interests appeared. With a boy two
    or more years older he frequently went to some hiding-place where
    they looked at each other's organs and handled them. He and
    another boy were once in an abandoned garden, and they took off
    all their clothes, the better to examine each other. The other
    boy then offered to kiss M.O.'s fundament, and did so. It caused
    a surprisingly keen and distinctly sexual sensation, the first
    sexual shock that he can remember experiencing. He refused to
    reciprocate, however, when asked.

    Toward the end of this period there was a new and increasing
    development of another sort, not recognized then as at all sexual
    in character. He began to feel toward certain boys in a way very
    different and much keener than he had done thus far toward girls,
    although at the time he made no comparisons. For instance there
    was a boy whom he considered very pretty. They visited each other
    often and spent long times playing together. In school they
    looked and looked at each other until delicious, uncontrollable
    giggling spells came on. Sexual matters were never discussed or
    thought of. These experiences were, in their way, very
    sentimental and ideal. M.O. is sure that with himself the main
    consideration was always the other boy's beauty. He began to
    recall with great fondness a certain much older and very handsome
    youth who had lived near him in the first neighborhood, and had
    at the time shown him, various little friendly attentions. He
    seldom saw him now, and hardly sought to do so, yet was immensely
    pleased by a casual word or look from him in the schoolyard, and
    much interested when other people spoke of him.

    A cousin about two years younger than M.O. often visited him and
    slept with him. They were very fond of each other, and handled
    each other's organs.

    When M.O. was about 11 years of age the family removed to a
    distant neighborhood, where there were almost no children of his
    own age, and where any association with those in the one just
    left was practically impossible. From this time until the changes
    of puberty were well under way his sexual life contrasted
    strongly, in its solitude, with the former promiscuity. He
    remembers liking to wrestle with two or three schoolboys and to
    get their heads between his legs. He thinks they were not aware
    of his sexual impulses. He flirted, consciously flirted, with
    certain school-girls, but never even suggested anything sexual to
    them. He read a few family medical books.

    One day, lying on an old uneven couch, innocently enough at
    first, he induced a new and delicious sensation, altogether
    different from any he had ever dreamed of--something far beyond
    the satisfaction of mere curiosity. He repeated the thing and
    before long produced emissions. Masturbation soon followed.
    Certain days he would perform the act two or three times, but
    again he would avoid it for days. He began at once to fight the
    tendency, and felt very guilty and very ashamed for indulging it.
    He prayed for help and at times wept over his failures to break
    the habit so quickly formed. For a certain period, after two or
    three years, he seemed to have succeeded, but he observed that he
    had intense erotic dreams with copious emissions regularly every
    eight days. Just then certain newspaper advertisements fell under
    his eye, and these persuaded him that he had produced in himself
    a diseased condition. He never resorted to the remedies
    advertised, but he was discouraged in his efforts to overcome the
    bad habit; and since the evil effects appeared to consist only in
    the seminal losses, he concluded that he might as well have the
    greater enjoyment of masturbation.

    For a short time, he remembers that he had an intense but
    revolting interest in the sexual organs of animals, especially
    horses. The males were much more interesting.

    Gradually he began to develop, entirely from within, the ideal of
    a male comrade,--a beautiful, emotional boy between whom and
    himself there might exist a powerful romantic passion. He lay for
    hours dreaming of this, and inventing thrilling situations.
    Suddenly, at church, he became acquainted with the very youth,
    Edmund, who seemed to satisfy all his longings. M.O. was then 16½
    and Edmund 15. A real wooing ensued, Edmund finally yielding to
    the physical appeals of M.O. after several fits of misgiving. The
    yielding was in the end complete, however. The two spent night
    after night together, enjoying intercrural intercourse and
    sometimes mutual masturbation. Their parents may have been
    slightly uneasy at times, but the connection continued
    uninterruptedly for a year and a half or more. In the meantime
    M.O. occasionally had relations with other boys, but never
    wavered in his real preference for Edmund. For girls he had no
    sexual desire whatever, though he was much associated with them.

    Then M.O. and Edmund went to college at different places, but
    they met in vacations and wrote frequent and ardent love-letters.
    Both had genuine attacks of love-sickness and of jealousy. As
    M.O. looks back on this first love passion he can by no means
    regret it. It doubtless had great formative influence.

    After the first year at college, Edmund transferred to another
    school farther away from M.O. and the opportunities for meeting
    became rarer, but their affection was maintained and the
    intercourse resumed whenever it was possible. Gradually, however,
    Edmund became interested in women and finally married. M.O. also
    formed relations repeatedly with college friends and occasionally
    with others.

    On the whole M.O. preferred boys a year or two younger than
    himself, but as he grew older the age difference increased. At 30
    he regarded himself as virtually "engaged" to a youth of 17, one
    unusually mature, however, and much larger than himself.

    M.O. is always unhappy unless his affections have fairly free
    course. Life has been very disappointing to him in other
    respects. His greatest joys have come to him in this way. If he
    is able to consummate his present plan of union with the youth
    just referred to, he will feel that his life has been crowned by
    what is for him the best possible end; otherwise, he declares, he
    would not care to live at all.

    He admires male beauty passionately. Feminine beauty he perceives
    objectively, as he would any design of flowing curves and
    delicate coloring, but it has no sexual charm for him whatever.
    Women have put themselves in his way repeatedly, but he finds
    himself more and more irritated by their specifically feminine
    foibles. With men generally he is much more patient and
    sympathetic.

    The first literature that appealed to him was Plato's dialogues,
    first read at 20 years of age. Until then he had not known but
    what he stood alone in his peculiarity. He read what he could of
    classic literature. He enjoys Pater, appreciating his attitude
    toward his own sex. Four or five years, later he came across
    Raffalovich's book, and ever since has felt a real debt of
    gratitude to its author.

    M.O. has no wish to injure society at large. As an individual he
    holds that he has the same right to be himself that anyone else
    has. He thinks that while boys of from 13 to 15 might possibly be
    rendered inverts, those who reach 16 without it cannot be bent
    that way. They may be devoted to an invert enough in other ways
    to yield him what he wishes sexually, but they will remain
    essentially normal themselves. His observations are based on
    about 30 homosexual relationships that have lasted various
    lengths of time.

    M.O. feels strongly the poetic and elevated character of his
    principal homosexual relationships, but he shrinks from appearing
    too sentimental.

    With regard to the traces of feminism in inverts he writes:--

    "Up to the age of 11 I associated much with a cousin five years
    older (the one referred to above) and took great delight in a
    game we often played, in which I was a girl,--a never-ending
    romance, a non-sexual love story.

    "Somewhat later and until puberty, I took great delight in
    acting, but generally took female roles, wearing skirts, shawls,
    beads, wigs, head-dresses. When I was about 13 my family began to
    make fun of me for it. I played secretly for a while, and then
    the desire for it left, never to return.

    "There still lingers, however, a minor interest, which began
    before puberty, in valentines. My feeling for them is much like
    my feeling for flowers.

    "Before I reached puberty I was sometimes called a 'sissy' by my
    father. Such taunts humiliated me more than anything else has
    ever done. After puberty my father no longer applied the term,
    and gradually other persons ceased to tease me that way. The
    sting of it lasted, though, and led me more than once to ask
    intimate friends, both men and women, if they considered me at
    all feminine. Every one of them has been very emphatically of the
    opinion that my rational life is distinctively masculine, being
    logical, impartial, skeptical. One or two have suggested that I
    have a finer discrimination than most men, and that I take care
    of my rooms somewhat as a woman might, though this does not
    extend to the style of decorations. One man said that I lacked
    sympathy with certain 'grosser manifestations of masculine
    character, such as smoking.' Some women think me unusually
    observing of women's dress. My own is by no means effeminate. In
    a muscular way I have average strength, but am supple far beyond
    what is usual. If trained for it early, I believe I would have
    made a good contortionist.

    "I have never had the least inclination to use tobacco, generally
    take neither tea nor coffee, and seldom any liquor, never malt
    liquors. The dessert is always the best part of the meal. These
    tastes I attribute largely to my sedentary life. When out camping
    I observed a marked change in the direction of heartier food and
    mild stimulants.

    "My physical courage has never been put to the test, but I
    observe that others appear to count on it. I am very aggressive
    in matters of religious, political, social opinion. In moral
    courage I am either reckless or courageous, I do not know which.

    "I am, perhaps, a better whistler than most men.

    "When I was quite little my grandmother taught me to do certain
    kinds of fancy-work, and I continued to do a little from time to
    time until I was 24. Then I became irritated over a piece that
    troubled me, put it in the fire, and have not wanted to touch any
    since. As a pet economy I continue to do nearly all of my own
    mending.

    "I have a decided aversion for much jewelry. My estheticism is
    very pronounced as compared with most of the men with whom I
    associate, although I have never been able to give it much scope.
    It makes for cleanliness, order, and general good taste. My dress
    is economical and by no means fastidious; yet it seems to be
    generally approved. I have been complimented often on my ability
    to select appropriate presents, clothing, and to arrange a room."

    M.O. states that he practises the love-bite at times, though very
    gently. He often wants to pinch one who interests him sexually.

    He considers very silly the statement somewhere made, that
    inverts are always liars. Very few people, he says, are perfectly
    honest, and the more dangerous society makes it for a man to be
    so, the less likely he is to be. While he himself has been unable
    in two or three instances to keep promises made to withhold from
    sexual intercourse with certain attractive individuals, he has
    never otherwise been guilty of untruth about his homosexual
    relations.

    The foregoing narrative was received eight years ago. During this
    interval M.O.'s health has very greatly improved. There has been
    a marked increase in outdoor activities and interests.

    Two years since M.O. consulted a prominent specialist who
    performed a thorough psychoanalysis. He informed M.O. that he
    was less strongly homosexual than he himself supposed, and
    recommended marriage with some young and pretty woman. He
    attributed the homosexual bent to M.O.'s having had his "nose
    broken" at the age of 6, by the birth of a younger brother, who
    from that time on received all the attention and petting. M.O.
    had continued up to that age very affectionate toward his mother
    and dependent on her. He can remember friends and neighbors
    commenting on it. At first M.O. was inclined to reject this
    suggestion of the specialist, but on long reflection he inclines
    to believe that it was indeed a very important factor, though not
    the sole one. From his later observations of children and
    comparisons of these with memories of his own childhood, M.O.
    says he is sure he was affectionate and demonstrative much beyond
    the average. His greatest craving was for affection, and his
    greatest grief the fancied belief that no one cared for him. At
    10 or 11 he attempted suicide for this reason.

    Also as a result of the psychoanalysis, but trying to eliminate
    the influence of suggestion, he recollects and emphasizes more
    the attraction he felt toward girls before the age of 12. Had his
    sexual experiences subsequently proved normal, he doubts if those
    before 12 could be held to give evidence of homosexuality, but
    only of precocious nervous and sexual irritability, greatly
    heightened and directed by the secret practices of the children
    with whom he associated. He does not see why these experiences
    should have given him a homosexual bent any more than a
    heterosexual one.

    The psychoanalysis recalled to M.O. that during the period of
    early flirtation he had often kissed and embraced various girls,
    but likewise he recalled having observed at the same time, with
    some surprise, that no definitely sexual desire arose, though the
    way was probably open to gratify it. Such interest as did exist
    ceased wholly or almost so as the relation with Edmund developed.
    There was no aversion from the company of girls and women,
    however; the intellectual friendships were mainly with them,
    while the emotional ones were with boys.

    Very recently M.O. spent several days with Edmund, who has been
    married for several years. With absolutely no sexual interest in
    each other, they nevertheless found a great bond of love still
    subsisting. Neither regrets anything of the past, but feels that
    the final outcome of their earlier relation has been good.
    Edmund's beauty is still pronounced, and is remarked by others.

    In spite of his precocious sexuality, M.O. had from the very
    first an extreme disgust for obscene stories, and for any
    association of sexual things with filthy words and anecdotes.
    Owing in part to this and in part to his temperamental
    skepticism, he disbelieved what associates told him regarding
    sexual emissions, only becoming convinced when he actually
    experienced them; and the facts of reproduction he denied
    indignantly until he read them in a medical work. Until he was
    well over 25 the physical aversion from any thought of
    reproduction was intense. He knows other, normal, young men who
    have felt the same way, but he believes it would be prevented or
    overcome by sex-education such as is now being introduced in
    American schools.

    Again, as to traces of feminism: Perhaps two years ago, all
    impulse to give the love-bite disappeared suddenly. There has
    been lately a marked increase of dramatic interest, arising in
    perfectly natural ways, and without any of the peculiarities
    noted before. The childish pleasure in valentines has all gone;
    M.O. believes that _circumstances_ have lately been more
    favorable for the development of a more robust estheticism.

    For some years he has heard no definite reproach for feminism,
    though some persons tell his friends that he is "very peculiar."
    He forms many intimate, enduring, non-sexual friendships with
    both men and women, and he doubts if the peculiarity noted by
    others is due so much to his homosexuality as it is to his
    estheticism, skepticism, and the unconventional opinions which he
    expresses quite indiscreetly at times. With the improvement in
    general health, has come the changes that would be expected in
    food and other matters of daily life.

    Resuming his narrative at the point where the earlier
    communication left it, M.O. says that about a year after that
    time, the youth of 17 to whom he had considered himself virtually
    engaged withdrew from the agreement so far as it bore on his own
    future, but not from the sentimental relation as it existed.
    Although separated most of the time by distance, the physical
    relation was resumed whenever they met. Subsequently, however,
    the young man fell in love with a young woman and became engaged
    to her. His physical relation with M.O. then ceased, but the
    friendship otherwise continues strong.

    Shortly after the first break in this relation, M.O. became,
    through the force of quite unusual circumstances, very friendly
    and intimate with a young woman of considerable charm. He
    confided to her his abnormality, and was not repulsed. To others
    their relation probably appeared that of lovers, and a painful
    situation was created by the slander of a jealous woman. M.O.
    felt that in honor he must propose marriage to her. The young
    woman was non-committal, but invited M.O. to spend several months
    at her home. Shortly after his arrival a sad occurrence in his
    own family compelled him to go away, and they did not meet again
    for four years. They corresponded, but less and less often. His
    relations with boys continued.

    Before his final meeting with her he became acquainted with a
    woman whom he has since married. The acquaintance began in a
    wholly non-sentimental community of interests in certain
    practical affairs, and very gradually widened into an
    intellectual and sympathetic friendship. M.O. had no secrets from
    this woman. After a full and prolonged consideration of all sides
    of the matter they married. Since that event he has had no sexual
    relations except with his wife. With her they are not passionate,
    but they are animated by the strong desire for children. Of the
    parental instinct he had become aware several years before this.

    M.O. believes that no moral stigma should be attached to
    homosexuality until it can be proved to result from the vicious
    life of a free moral agent,--and of this he has no expectation.
    He believes that much of its danger and unhappiness would be
    prevented by a thorough yet discreet sex-education, such as
    should be given to all children, whether normal or abnormal.

FOOTNOTES:

[124] Thus Godard described the little boys in Cairo as amusing themselves
indifferently either with boys or girls in sexual play. (_Egypte et
Palestine_, 1867, p. 105.) The same thing may be observed in England and
elsewhere.

[125] Thus, of the Duc d'Orleans, in the seventeenth century, as described
in Bouchard's _Confessions_, one of my correspondents writes: "This prince
was of the same mind as Campanella, who, in the _Città del Sole_, laid it
down that young men ought to be freely admitted to women for the avoidance
of sexual aberrations. Aretino and Berni enable us to comprehend the
sexual immorality of males congregated together in the courts of Roman
prelates." The homosexuality of youth was also well recognized among the
Romans, but they adopted the contrary course and provided means to gratify
it, as the existence of the _concubinus_, referred to by Catullus, clearly
shows.

[126] "Our Public Schools: their Methods and Morals." _New Review_, July,
1893.

[127] Max Dessoir, "Zür Psychologie der Vita Sexualis," _Allgemeine
Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_, 1894, H. 5.

[128] F.H.A. Marshall, _The Physiology of Reproduction_, 1910, pp. 650-8.

[129] Iwan Bloch, in _The Sexual Life of Our Time_, makes this distinction
as between "homosexuality" (corresponding to inversion) and
"pseudo-homosexuality." According to the terminology I have accepted, the
term "pseudo-homosexuality" would be unnecessary and incorrect. More
recently (_Die Prostitution_, Bd. i, 1912, p. 103) Bloch has preferred, in
place of pseudo-homosexuality, the more satisfactory term, "secondary
homosexuality."

[130] See, for instance, Hirschfeld's reasonable discussion of the matter,
_Die Homosexualität_, ch. xvii.

[131] Alfred Fuchs, who edited Krafft-Ebing's _Psychopathia Sexualis_
after the latter's death, distinguishes between congenital homosexuality,
manifesting itself from the first without external stimulation, and
homosexuality on a basis of inborn disposition needing special external
influences to arouse it (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iv,
1902, p. 181).

[132] Krafft-Ebing, "Ueber tardive Homosexualität," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iii, 1901, p. 7; Näcke, "Probleme auf den Gebiete der
Homosexualität," _Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_, 1902, p. 805;
ib., "Ueber tardive Homosexualität," _Sexual-Probleme_, September, 1911.
Numa Praetorius (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, January, 1913, p.
228) considers that retarded cases should not be regarded as bisexual, but
as genuine inverts who had acquired a pseudoheterosexuality which at last
falls away; at the most, he believes such cases merely represent a
prolongation of the youthful undifferentiated period.

[133] Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, 1897, pp, 458-8.

[134] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, ch. viii.

[135] This was the term used in the earlier editions of the present
_Study_. I willingly reject it in favor of the simpler and fairly clear
term now more generally employed. It is true that by bisexuality it is
possible to understand not only the double direction of the sexual
instinct, but also the presence of both sexes in the same individual,
which in French is more accurately distinguished as "bisexuation."

[136] J. Van Biervliet, "L'Homme Droit et l'Homme Gauche," _Revue
Philosophique_, October, 1901. It is here shown that in the constitution
of their nervous system the ambidextrous are demonstrably left-sided
persons; their optic, acoustic, olfactory, and muscular sensitivity is
preponderant on the left side.

CHAPTER IV.

SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.

Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in Schools,
etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of Inverted
Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among Women.

Homosexuality is not less common in women than in men. In the seriocomic
theory of sex set forth by Aristophanes in Plato's _Symposium_, males and
females are placed on a footing of complete equality, and, however
fantastic, the theory suffices to indicate that to the Greek mind, so
familiar with homosexuality, its manifestations seemed just as likely to
occur in women as in men. That is undoubtedly the case. Like other
anomalies, indeed, in its more pronounced forms it may be less frequently
met with in women; in its less pronounced forms, almost certainly, it is
more frequently found. A Catholic confessor, a friend tells me, informed
him that for one man who acknowledges homosexual practices there are three
women. For the most part feminine homosexuality runs everywhere a parallel
course to masculine homosexuality and is found under the same conditions.
It is as common in girls as in boys; it has been found, under certain
conditions, to abound among women in colleges and convents and prisons, as
well as under the ordinary conditions of society. Perhaps the earliest
case of homosexuality recorded in detail occurred in a woman,[137] and it
was with the investigation of such a case in a woman that Westphal may be
said to have inaugurated the scientific study of inversion.

Moreover, inversion is as likely to be accompanied by high intellectual
ability in a woman as in a man. The importance of a clear conception of
inversion is indeed in some respects, under present social conditions,
really even greater in the case of women than of men. For if, as has
sometimes been said of our civilization, "this is a man's world," the
large proportion of able women inverts, whose masculine qualities render
it comparatively easy for them to adopt masculine avocations, becomes a
highly significant fact.[138]

It has been noted of distinguished women in all ages and in all fields of
activity that they have frequently displayed some masculine traits.[139]
Even "the first great woman in history," as she has been called by a
historian of Egypt, Queen Hatschepsu, was clearly of markedly virile
temperament, and always had herself represented on her monuments in
masculine costume, and even with a false beard.[140] Other famous queens
have on more or less satisfactory grounds been suspected of a homosexual
temperament, such as Catherine II of Russia, who appears to have been
bisexual, and Queen Christina of Sweden, whose very marked masculine
traits and high intelligence seem to have been combined with a definitely
homosexual or bisexual temperament.[141]

Great religious and moral leaders, like Madame Blavatsky and Louise
Michel, have been either homosexual or bisexual or, at least, of
pronounced masculine temperament.[142] Great actresses from the eighteenth
century onward have frequently been more or less correctly identified with
homosexuality, as also many women distinguished in other arts.[143] Above
all, Sappho, the greatest of women poets, the peer of the greatest poets
of the other sex in the supreme power of uniting art and passion, has left
a name which is permanently associated with homosexuality.

    It can scarcely be said that opinion is unanimous in regard to
    Sappho, and the reliable information about her, outside the
    evidence of the fragments of her poems which have reached us, is
    scanty. Her fame has always been great; in classic times her name
    was coupled with Homer's. But even to antiquity she was somewhat
    of an enigma, and many legends grew up around her name, such as
    the familiar story that she threw herself into the sea for the
    love of Phaon. What remains clear is that she was regarded with
    great respect and admiration by her contemporaries, that she was
    of aristocratic family, that she was probably married and had a
    daughter, that at one time she had to take her part in political
    exile, and that she addressed her girl friends in precisely
    similar terms to those addressed by Alcaeus to youths. We know
    that in antiquity feminine homosexuality was regarded as
    especially common in Sparta, Lesbos, and Miletus. Horace, who was
    able to read Sappho's complete poems, states that the objects of
    her love-plaints were the young girls of Lesbos, while Ovid, who
    played so considerable a part in weaving fantastic stories round
    Sappho's name, never claimed that they had any basis of truth. It
    was inevitable that the early Christians should eagerly attack so
    ambiguous a figure, and Tatian (_Oratio ad Graecos_, cap. 52)
    reproached the Greeks that they honored statues of the tribade
    Sappho, a prostitute who had celebrated her own wantonness and
    infatuation. The result is that in modern times there have been
    some who placed Sappho's character in a very bad light and others
    who have gone to the opposite extreme in an attempt at
    "rehabilitation." Thus, W. Mure, in his _History of the Language
    and Literature of Ancient Greece_ (1854, vol. iii, pp. 272-326,
    496-8), dealing very fully with Sappho, is disposed to accept
    many of the worst stories about her, though he has no pronounced
    animus, and, as regards female homosexuality, which he considers
    to be "far more venial" than male homosexuality, he remarks that
    "in modern times it has numbered among its votaries females
    distinguished for refinement of manners and elegant
    accomplishments." Bascoul, on the other hand, will accept no
    statements about Sappho which conflict with modern ideals of
    complete respectability, and even seeks to rewrite her most
    famous ode in accordance with the colorless literary sense which
    he supposes that it originally bore (J.M.F. Bascoul, _La Chaste
    Sappho et le Mouvement Feministe à Athènes_, 1911).
    Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (_Sappho und Simonides_, 1913) also
    represents the antiquated view, formerly championed by Welcker,
    according to which the attribution of homosexuality is a charge
    of "vice," to be repudiated with indignation. Most competent and
    reliable authorities today, however, while rejecting the
    accretions of legend around Sappho's name and not disputing her
    claim to respect, are not disposed to question the personal and
    homosexual character of her poems. "All ancient tradition and the
    character of her extant fragments," says Prof. J.A. Platt
    (_Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th. ed., art. "Sappho"), "show that
    her morality was what has ever since been known as 'Lesbian.'"
    What exactly that "Lesbian morality" involved, we cannot indeed
    exactly ascertain. "It is altogether idle," as A. Croiset remarks
    of Sappho (_Histoire de la Littérature Grecque_, vol. ii, ch. v),
    "to discuss the exact quality of this friendship or this love, or
    to seek to determine with precision the frontiers, which language
    itself often seems to seek to confuse, of a friendship more or
    less esthetic and sensual, of a love more or less Platonic." (See
    also J.M. Edmonds, _Sappho in the Added Light of the New
    Fragments_, 1912). Iwan Bloch similarly concludes (_Ursprung der
    Syphilis_, vol. ii, 1911, p. 507) that Sappho probably combined,
    as modern investigation shows to be easily possible, lofty ideal
    feelings with passionate sensuality, exactly as happens in normal
    love.

It must also be said that in literature homosexuality in women has
furnished a much more frequent motive to the artist than homosexuality in
men. Among the Greeks, indeed, homosexuality in women seldom receives
literary consecration, and in the revival of the classical spirit at the
Renaissance it was still chiefly in male adolescents, as we see, for
instance, in Marino's _Adone_, that the homosexual ideal found expression.
After that date male inversion was for a long period rarely touched in
literature, save briefly and satirically, while inversion in women
becomes a subject which might be treated in detail and even with
complacence. Many poets and novelists, especially in France, might be
cited in evidence.

    Ariosto, it has been pointed out, has described the homosexual
    attractions of women. Diderot's famous novel, _La Religieuse_,
    which, when first published, was thought to have been actually
    written by a nun, deals with the torture to which a nun was put
    by the perverse lubricity of her abbess, for whom, it is said,
    Diderot found a model in the Abbess of Chelles, a daughter of the
    Regent and thus a member of a family which for several
    generations showed a marked tendency to inversion. Diderot's
    narrative has been described as a faithful description of the
    homosexual phenomena liable to occur in convents. Feminine
    homosexuality, especially in convents, was often touched on less
    seriously in the eighteenth century. Thus we find a homosexual
    scene in _Les Plaisirs du Cloître_, a play written in 1773 (_Le
    Théâtre d'Amour an XVIIIe Siècle_, 1910.) Balzac, who treated so
    many psychological aspects of love in a more or less veiled
    manner, has touched on this in _La Fille aux Yeux d'Or_, in a
    vague and extravagantly romantic fashion. Gautier made the
    adventures of a woman who was predisposed to homosexuality, and
    slowly realizes the fact, the central motive of his wonderful
    romance, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ (1835). He approached the
    subject purely as an artist and poet, but his handling of it
    shows remarkable insight. Gautier based his romance to some
    extent on the life of Madame Maupin or, as she preferred to call
    herself, Mademoiselle Maupin, who was born in 1673 (her father's
    name being d'Aubigny), dressed as a man, and became famous as a
    teacher of fencing, afterward as an opera singer. She was
    apparently of bisexual temperament, and her devotion to women led
    her into various adventures. She ultimately entered a convent,
    and died, at the age of 34, with a reputation for sanctity. (E.C.
    Clayton, _Queens of Song_, vol. i, pp, 52-61; F. Karsch,
    "Mademoiselle Maupin," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_,
    vol. v, 1903, pp. 694-706.) A still greater writer, Flaubert, in
    _Salammbô_ (1862) made his heroine homosexual. Zola has described
    sexual inversion in _Nona_ and elsewhere. Some thirty years ago a
    popular novelist, A. Belot, published a novel called
    _Mademoiselle Giraud, ma Femme_, which was much read; the
    novelist took the attitude of a moralist who is bound to treat
    frankly, but with all decorous propriety, a subject of increasing
    social gravity. The story is that of a man whose bride will not
    allow his approach on account of her own _liaison_ with a female
    friend continued after marriage. This book appears to have given
    origin to a large number of novels, some of which touched the
    question with considerable less affectation of propriety. Among
    other novelists who have dealt with the matter may be mentioned
    Guy de Maupassant (_La Femme de Paul_), Bourget (_Crime
    d'Amour_), Catulle Mendès (_Méphistophéla_), and Willy in the
    _Claudine_ series.

    Among poets who have used the motive of homosexuality in women
    with more or less boldness may be found Lamartine (_Regina_),
    Swinburne (first series of _Poems and Ballads_), Verlaine
    (_Parallèlement_), and Pierre Louys (_Chansons de Bilitis_). The
    last-named book, a collection of homosexual prose-poems,
    attracted considerable attention on publication, as it was an
    attempt at mystification, being put forward as a translation of
    the poems of a newly discovered Oriental Greek poetess; Bilitis
    (more usually Beltis) is the Syrian name for Aphrodite. _Les
    Chansons de Bilitis_ are not without charm, but have been
    severely dealt with by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (_Sappho und
    Simonides_, 1913, p. 63 et seq.) as "a travesty of Hellenism,"
    betraying inadequate knowledge of Greek antiquity.

    More interesting, as the work of a woman who was not only highly
    gifted, but herself of homosexual temperament, are the various
    volumes of poems published by "Renée Vivien." This lady, whose
    real name was Pauline Tarn, was born in 1877; her father was of
    Scotch descent, and her mother an American lady from Honolulu. As
    a child she was taken to Paris, and was brought up as a French
    girl. She travelled much and at one time took a house at
    Mitylene, the chief city of ancient Lesbos. She had a love of
    solitude, hated publicity, and was devoted to her women friends,
    especially to one whose early death about 1900 was the great
    sorrow of Pauline Tarn's life. She is described as very
    beautiful, very simple and sweet-natured, and highly accomplished
    in many directions. She suffered, however, from nervous
    overtension and incurable melancholy. Toward the close of her
    life she was converted to Catholicism and died in 1909, at the
    age of 32. She is buried in the cemetery at Passy. Her best verse
    is by some considered among the finest in the French language.
    (Charles Brun, "Pauline Tarn," _Notes and Queries_, 22 Aug.,
    1914; the same writer, who knew her well, has also written a
    pamphlet, _Renée Vivien_, Sansot, Paris, 1911.) Her chief volumes
    of poems are _Etudes et Preludes_ (1901), _Cendres et Poussières_
    (1902), _Evocations_ (1903). A novel, _Une Femme M'Apparut_
    (1904), is said to be to some extent autobiographical. "Renée
    Vivien" also wrote a volume on Sappho with translations, and a
    further volume of poems, _Les Kitharèdes_, suggested by the
    fragments which remain of the minor women poets of Greece,
    followers of Sappho.

It is, moreover, noteworthy that a remarkably large proportion of the
cases in which homosexuality has led to crimes of violence, or otherwise
come under medico-legal observation, has been among women. It is well
know that the part taken by women generally in open criminality, and
especially in crimes of violence, is small as compared with men.[144] In
the homosexual field, as we might have anticipated, the conditions are to
some extent reversed. Inverted men, in whom a more or less feminine
temperament is so often found, are rarely impelled to acts of aggressive
violence, though they frequently commit suicide. Inverted women, who may
retain their feminine emotionality combined with some degree of infantile
impulsiveness and masculine energy, present a favorable soil for the seeds
of passional crime, under those conditions of jealousy and allied emotions
which must so often enter into the invert's life.

    The first conspicuous example of this tendency in recent times is
    the Memphis case (1892) in the United States. (Arthur Macdonald,
    "Observation de Sexualité Pathologique Feminine," _Archives
    d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, May, 1895; see also Krafft-Ebing,
    _Psychopathia Sexualis_, Eng. trans, of 10th ed., p. 550.) In
    this case a congenital sexual invert, Alice Mitchell, planned a
    marriage with Freda Ward, taking a male-name and costume. This
    scheme was frustrated by Freda's sister, and Alice Mitchell then
    cut Freda's throat. There is no reason to suppose that she was
    insane at the time of the murder. She was a typical invert of a
    very pronounced kind. Her mother had been insane and had
    homicidal impulses. She herself was considered unbalanced, and
    was masculine in her habits from her earliest years. Her face was
    obviously unsymmetrical and she had an appearance of youthfulness
    below her age. She was not vicious, and had little knowledge of
    sexual matters, but when she kissed Freda she was ashamed of
    being seen, while Freda could see no reason for being ashamed.
    She was adjudged insane.

    There have been numerous cases in America more recently. One case
    (for some details concerning which I am indebted to Dr. J.G.
    Kiernan, of Chicago) is that of the "Tiller Sisters," two
    quintroons, who for many years had acted together under that name
    in cheap theaters. One, who was an invert, with a horror of men
    dating from early girlhood, was sexually attached to the other,
    who was without inborn inversion, and was eventually induced by a
    man to leave the invert. The latter, overcome by jealousy, broke
    into the apartment of the couple and shot the man dead. She was
    tried, and sent to prison for life. A defense of insanity was
    made, but for this there was no evidence. In another case, also
    occurring in Chicago (reported in _Medicine_, June, 1899, and
    _Alienist and Neurologist_, October, 1899), a trained nurse lived
    for fourteen years with a young woman who left her on four
    different occasions, but was each time induced to return;
    finally, however, she left and married, whereupon the nurse shot
    the husband, who was not, however, fatally wounded. The culprit
    in this case had been twice married, but had not lived with
    either of her husbands; it was stated that her mother had died in
    an asylum, and that her brother had committed suicide. She was
    charged with disorderly conduct, and subjected to a fine.

    In another later case in Chicago a Russian girl of 22, named Anna
    Rubinowitch, shot from motives of jealousy another Russian girl
    to whom she had been devoted from childhood, and then fatally
    shot herself. The relations between the two girls had been very
    intimate. "Our love affair is one purely of the soul," Anna
    Rubinowitch was accustomed to say; "we love each other on a
    higher plane than that of earth." (I am informed that there were
    in fact physical relationships; the sexual organs were normal.)
    This continued, with great devotion on each side, until Anna's
    "sweetheart" began to show herself susceptible to the advances of
    a male wooer. This aroused uncontrollable jealousy in Anna, whose
    father, it may be noted, had committed suicide by shooting some
    years previously.

    Homosexual relationships are also a cause of suicide among women.
    Such a case was reported in Massachusetts early in 1901. A girl
    of 21 had been tended during a period of nervous prostration,
    apparently of hysterical nature, by a friend and neighbor,
    fourteen years her senior, married and having children. An
    intimate friendship grew up, equally ardent on both sides. The
    mother of the younger woman and the husband of the other took
    measures to put a stop to the intimacy, and the girl was sent
    away to a distant city; stolen interviews, however, still
    occurred. Finally, when the obstacles became insurmountable, the
    younger woman bought a revolver and deliberately shot herself in
    the temple, in presence of her mother, dying immediately. Though
    sometimes thought to act rather strangely, she was a great
    favorite with all, handsome, very athletic, fond of all outdoor
    sports, an energetic religious worker, possessing a fine voice,
    and was an active member of many clubs and societies. The older
    woman belonged to an aristocratic family and was loved and
    respected by all. In another case in New York in 1905 a retired
    sailor, "Captain John Weed," who had commanded transatlantic
    vessels for many years, was admitted to a Home for old sailors
    and shortly after became ill and despondent, and cut his throat.
    It was then found that "Captain Weed" was really a woman. I am
    informed that the old sailor's despondency and suicide were due
    to enforced separation from a female companion.

    The infatuation of young girls for actresses and other prominent
    women may occasionally lead to suicide. Thus in Philadelphia, a
    few years ago, a girl of 19, belonging to a very wealthy family,
    beautiful and highly educated, acquired an absorbing infatuation
    for Miss Mary Garden, the _prima donna_, with whom she had no
    personal acquaintance. The young girl would kneel in worship
    before the singer's portrait, and studied hairdressing and
    manicuring in the hope of becoming Miss Garden's maid. When she
    realized that her dream was hopeless she shot herself with a
    revolver. (Cases more or less resembling those here brought
    forward occur from time to time in all parts of the civilized
    world. Reports, mostly from current newspapers, of such cases, as
    well as of simple transvestism, or Eonism, in both women and men,
    will be found in the publications of the Berlin
    Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitee: the _Monatsberichte_ up to
    1909, then in the _Vierteljahrsberichte_, and from 1913 onward in
    the _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_.)

Yet, until recently, comparatively little has been known of sexual
inversion in women. Even so lately as 1901 (after the publication of the
first edition of the present Study), Krafft-Ebing wrote that scarcely
fifty cases had been recorded. The chief monographs devoted but little
space to women.

    Krafft-Ebing himself, in the earlier editions of _Psychopathia
    Sexualis_, gave little special attention to inversion in women,
    although he published a few cases. Moll, however, included a
    valuable chapter on the subject in his _Konträre
    Sexualempfindung_, narrating numerous cases, and inversion in
    women also received special attention in the present Study.
    Hirschfeld, however, in his _Homosexualität_ (1914) is the first
    authority who has been able to deal with feminine homosexuality
    as completely co-ordinate with masculine homosexuality. The two
    manifestations, masculine and feminine, are placed on the same
    basis and treated together throughout the work.

It is, no doubt, not difficult to account for this retardation in the
investigation of sexual inversion in women. Notwithstanding the severity
with which homosexuality in women has been visited in a few cases, for the
most part men seem to have been indifferent toward it; when it has been
made a crime or a cause for divorce in men, it has usually been considered
as no offense at all in women.[145] Another reason is that it is less
easy to detect in women; we are accustomed to a much greater familiarity
and intimacy between women than between men, and we are less apt to
suspect the existence of any abnormal passion. And, allied with this
cause, we have also to bear in mind the extreme ignorance and the extreme
reticence of women regarding any abnormal or even normal manifestation of
their sexual life. A woman may feel a high degree of sexual attraction for
another woman without realizing that her affection is sexual, and when she
does realize this, she is nearly always very unwilling to reveal the
nature of her intimate experience, even with the adoption of precautions,
and although the fact may be present to her that, by helping to reveal the
nature of her abnormality, she may be helping to lighten the burden of it
on other women. Among the numerous confessions voluntarily sent to
Krafft-Ebing there is not one by a woman. There is, again, the further
reason that well-marked and fully developed cases of inversion are
probably rarer in women, though a slighter degree may be more common; in
harmony with the greater affectability of the feminine organism to slight
stimuli, and its lesser liability to serious variation.[146]

The same aberrations that are found among men are, however, everywhere
found among women. Feminine inversion has sometimes been regarded as a
vice of modern refined civilization. Yet it was familiar to the
Anglo-Saxons, and Theodore's Penitential in the seventh century assigned a
penance of three years (considerably less than that assigned to men, or
for bestiality) to "a woman fornicating with a woman." Among the women of
savages in all parts of the world homosexuality is found, though it is
less frequently recorded than among men.[147]

In New Zealand it is stated on the authority of Moerenhout (though I have
not been able to find the reference) that the women practised Lesbianism.
In South America, where inversion is common among men, we find similar
phenomena in women. Among Brazilian tribes Gandavo[148] wrote:--

    "There are certain women among these Indians who determine to be
    chaste and know no man. These leave every womanly occupation and
    imitate the men. They wear their hair the same way as the men;
    they go to war with them or hunting, bearing their bows; they
    continue always in the company of men, and each has a woman who
    serves her and with whom she lives."

This has some analogy with the phenomena seen among North American men.
Dr. Holder, who has carefully studied the _boté_, tells me that he has met
no corresponding phenomena in women.

There is no doubt, however, that homosexuality among women is well known
to the American Indians in various regions. Thus the Salish Indians of
British Columbia have a myth of an old woman who had intercourse with a
young woman by means of a horn used as a penis.[149] In the mythology of
the Assiniboine Indians (of Canada and Montana) and the Fox Indians (of
Iowa) there are also legends of feminine homosexuality, supposed to have
been derived from the Algonkin Cree Indians, who were closely connected
with both.[150]

    According to the Assiniboine legend, a man's wife fell in love
    with his sister and eloped with her, a boneless child being the
    result of the union; the husband pursued the couple, and killed
    his wife as well as the child; no one cared to avenge her death.
    The Fox legend, entitled "Two Maidens who Played the Harlot with
    Each Other," runs as follows: "It is said that once on a time
    long ago there were two young women who were friends together. It
    is told that there were also two youths who tried to woo the two
    maidens, but they were not able even so much as to talk with
    them. After awhile the youths began to suspect something wrong.
    So once during the summer, when the two maidens started away to
    peel off bark, the youths followed, staying just far enough
    behind to keep them in sight. While the girls were peeling the
    bark, the youths kept themselves hidden. After awhile they no
    longer heard the sound of the maidens at work. Whereupon they
    began to creep up to where they were. When they drew nigh,
    behold, the maidens were in the act of taking off their clothes.
    The first to disrobe flung herself down on the ground and lay
    there. 'Pray, what are these girls going to do?' was the feeling
    in the hearts of the youths. And to their amazement the girls
    began to lie with each other. Thereupon the youths ran to where
    the girls were. She who was lying on top instantly fell over
    backward. Her clitoris was standing out and had a queer shape; it
    was like a turtle's penis. Thereupon the maidens began to plead
    with the youths: 'Oh, don't tell on us!' they said. 'Truly it is
    not of our own free desire that we have done this thing We have
    done it under the influence of some unknown being.' It is said
    that afterward one of the maidens became big with child. In the
    course of time, she gave birth, and the child was like a
    soft-shell turtle."

In Bali, according to Jacobs (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels),
homosexuality is almost as common among women as among men, though it is
more secretly exercised; the methods of gratification adopted are either
digital or lingual, or else by bringing the parts together (tribadism).

Baumann, who noted inversion among the male negro population of Zanzibar,
finds that it is also not rare among women. Although Oriental manners
render it impossible for such women to wear men's clothes openly, they do
so in private, and are recognized by other women by their man-like
bearing, as also by the fact that women's garments do not suit them. They
show a preference for masculine occupations, and seek sexual satisfaction
among women who have the same inclinations, or else among normal women,
who are won over by presents or other means. In addition to tribadism or
cunnilinctus, they sometimes use an ebony or ivory phallus, with a kind of
glans at one end, or sometimes at both ends; in the latter case it can be
used by two women at once, and sometimes it has a hole bored through it by
which warm water can be injected; it is regarded as an Arab invention, and
is sometimes used by normal women shut up in harems, and practically
deprived of sexual satisfaction.[151]

Among the Arab women, according to Kocher, homosexual practices are rare,
though very common among Arab men. In Egypt, however, according to Godard,
Kocher, and others, it is almost fashionable, and every woman in the harem
has a "friend." In Turkey homosexuality is sometimes said to be rare among
women. But it would appear to be found in the harems and women's baths of
Turkey, as well as of Islam generally. Brantôme in the sixteenth century
referred to the Lesbianism of Turkish women at the baths, and Leo
Africanus in the same century mentioned the tribadism of Moorish women and
the formal organization of tribadic prostitution in Fez. There was an
Osmanli Sapphic poetess, Mihiri, whose grave is at Amasia, and Vambery and
Achestorides agree as to the prevalence of feminine homosexuality in
Turkey.[152] Among the negroes and mulattoes of French creole countries,
according to Corre, homosexuality is very common. "I know a lady of great
beauty," he remarks, "a stranger in Guadalupe and the mother of a family,
who is obliged to stay away from the markets and certain shops because of
the excessive admiration of mulatto women and negresses, and the impudent
invitations which they dare to address to her."[153] He refers to several
cases of more or less violent sexual attempts by women on young colored
girls of 12 or 14, and observes that such attempts by men on children of
their own sex are much rarer.

In China (according to Matignon) and in Cochin China (according to
Lorion) homosexuality does not appear to be common among women. In India,
however, it is probably as prevalent among women as it certainly is among
men.

    In the first edition of this Study I quoted the opinion of Dr.
    Buchanan, then Superintendant of the Central Gaol of Bengal at
    Bhagalpur, who informed me that he had never come across a case
    and that his head-gaoler had never heard of such a thing in
    twenty-five years' experience. Another officer in the Indian
    Medical Service assures me, however, that there cannot be the
    least doubt as to the frequency of homosexuality among women in
    India, either inside or outside gaols. I am indebted to him for
    the following notes on this point:--

    "That homosexual relationships are common enough among Indian
    women is evidenced by the fact that the Hindustani language has
    five words to denote the tribade: (1) _dúgáná_, (2) _zanàkhé_,
    (3) _sa'tar_, (4) _chapathái_, and (5) _chapatbáz_. The _modus
    operandi_ is generally what Martial calls _geminos committere
    cunnos_, but sometimes a phallus, called _saburah_, is employed.
    The act itself is called _chapat_ or _chapti_, and the Hindustani
    poets, Nazir, Rangin, Ján S'áheb, treat of Lesbian love very
    extensively and sometimes very crudely. Ján S'áheb, a woman poet,
    sings to the effect that intercourse with a woman by means of a
    phallus is to be preferred to the satisfaction offered by a male
    lover. The common euphemism employed when speaking of two
    tribades who live together is that they 'live apart.' So much for
    the literary evidence as to the prevalence of what, _mirable
    dictu_, Dr. Buchanan's gaoler was ignorant of.

    "Now for facts. In the gaol of R. the superintendent discovered a
    number of phalli in the females' inclosure; they were made of
    clay and sun-dried and bore marks of use. In the gaol of S. was a
    woman who (as is usual with tribades in India) wore male attire,
    and was well known for her sexual proclivities. An examination
    revealed the following: Face much lined, mammæ of masculine type,
    but nipples elongated and readily erectile; gluteal and iliac
    regions quite of masculine type, as also the thighs; clitoris,
    with enlarged glands, readily erectile; nymphæ thickened and
    enlarged; vulvar orifice patent, for she had in early youth been
    a prostitute; the voice was almost contralto. Her partner was of
    low type, but eminently feminine in configuration and manner. In
    this case I heard that 'the man' went to a local ascetic and
    begged his intercession with the deity, so that she might
    impregnate her partner. ('The Hindoo medical works mention the
    possibility of a woman uniting with another woman in sexual
    embraces and begetting a boneless fetus.' _Short History of Aryan
    Medical Science_, p. 44.)

    "In the town of D. there 'lived apart' two women, one a Brahmin,
    the other a grazier; their _modus operandi_ was tribadism, as an
    eyewitness informed me. In S. I was called in to treat the widow
    of a wealthy Mohammedan; I had occasion to examine the pudenda,
    and found what Martineau would have called the indelible stigmata
    of early masturbation and later sapphism. She admitted the
    impeachment and confessed that she was on the best of terms with
    her three remarkably well-formed and good-looking handmaidens.
    This lady said that she began masturbation at an early age, 'just
    like all other women,' and that sapphism came after the age of
    puberty. Another Mohammedan woman whom I knew, and who had a very
    large clitoris, told me that she had been initiated into Lesbian
    love at 12 by a neighbor and had intermittently practised it ever
    since. I might also instance two sisters of the gardener caste,
    both widows, who 'lived apart' and indulged in simultaneous
    sapphism.

    "That sometimes the actors in tribadism are most vigorous is
    shown by the fact that, in the central gaol of ----, swelling of
    the vulva was admitted to have been caused by the embraces of two
    female convicts. The subordinate who told me this mentioned it
    quite incidentally while relating his experiences as hospital
    assistant at this gaol. When I questioned him he stated that the
    woman, whom he was called to treat, told him that she could never
    'satisfy herself' with men, but only with women. He added that
    tribadism was 'quite common in the gaol.'"

The foregoing sketch may serve to show that homosexual practices
certainly, and probably definite sexual inversion, are very widespread
among women in very many and various parts of the world, though it is
likely that, as among men, there are variations--geographical, racial,
national, or social--in the frequency or intensity of its obvious
manifestations. Thus, in the eighteenth century, Casanova remarked that
the women of Provence are specially inclined to Lesbianism.

In European prisons homosexual practices flourish among the women fully as
much, it may probably be said, as among the men. There is, indeed, some
reason for supposing that these phenomena are here sometimes even more
decisively marked than among men.[154] This prevalence of homosexuality
among women in prison is connected with the close relationship between
feminine criminality and prostitution.

The frequency of homosexual practices among prostitutes is a fact of some
interest, and calls for special explanation, for, at the first glance, it
seems in opposition to all that we know concerning the exciting causes of
homosexuality. Regarding the fact there can be no question.[155] It has
been noted by all who are acquainted with the lives of prostitutes, though
opinion may differ as to its frequency. In Berlin, Moll was told in
well-informed quarters, the proportion of prostitutes with Lesbian
tendencies is about 25 per cent. This was almost the proportion at Paris
many years ago, according to Parent-Duchâtelet; today, according to
Chevalier, it is larger; and Bourneville believes that 75 per cent, of the
inmates of the Parisian venereal hospitals have practised homosexuality.
Hammer in Germany has found among 66 prostitutes that 41 were
homosexual.[156] Hirschfeld thinks that inverted women are specially prone
to become prostitutes.[157] Eulenburg believes, on the other hand, that
the conditions of their life favor homosexuality among prostitutes; "a
homosexual union seems to them higher, purer, more innocent, and more
ideal."[158] There is, however, no fundamental contradiction between these
two views; they are probably both right.

In London, so far as my inquiries extend, homosexuality among prostitutes
is very much less prevalent, and in a well-marked form is confined to a
comparatively small section. I am indebted to a friend for the following
note: "From my experience of the Parisian prostitute, I gather that
Lesbianism in Paris is extremely prevalent; indeed, one might almost say
normal. In particular, most of the chahut-dancers of the Moulin-Rouge,
Casino de Paris, and the other public balls are notorious for going in
couples, and, for the most part, they prefer not to be separated, even in
their most professional moments with the other sex. In London the thing
is, naturally, much less obvious, and, I think, much less prevalent; but
it is certainly not infrequent. A certain number of well-known prostitutes
are known for their tendencies in this direction, which do not, however,
interfere in any marked way with the ordinary details of their profession.
I do not personally know of a single prostitute who is exclusively
Lesbian; I have heard vaguely that there are one or two such anomalies.
But I have heard a swell _cocotte_ at the Corinthian announce to the whole
room that she was going home with a girl; and no one doubted the
statement. Her name, indeed, was generally coupled with that of a
fifth-rate actress. Another woman of the same kind has a little clientele
of women who buy her photographs in Burlington Arcade. In the lower ranks
of the profession all this is much less common. One often finds women who
have simply never heard of such a thing; they know of it in regard to men,
but not in regard to women. And they are, for the most part, quite
horrified at the notion, which they consider part and parcel of 'French
beastliness.' Of course, almost every girl has her friend, and, when not
separately occupied, they often sleep together; but, while in separate,
rare cases, this undoubtedly means all that it can mean, for the most
part, so far as one can judge, it means no more than it would mean among
ordinary girls."

It is evident that there must be some radical causes for the frequency of
homosexuality among prostitutes. One such cause doubtless lies in the
character of the prostitute's relations with men; these relations are of a
professional character, and, as the business element becomes emphasized,
the possibility of sexual satisfaction diminishes; at the best, also;
there lacks the sense of social equality, the feeling of possession, and
scope for the exercise of feminine affection and devotion. These the
prostitute must usually be forced to find either in a "bully" or in
another woman.[159]

Apart from this fact it must be borne in mind that, in a very large number
of cases, prostitutes show in slight or more marked degree many of the
signs of neurotic heredity,[160] and it would not be surprising if they
present the germs of homosexuality in an unusually high degree. The life
of the prostitute may well develop such latent germs; and so we have an
undue tendency to homosexuality, just as we have it among criminals, and,
to a much less extent, among persons of genius and intellect.

Homosexuality is specially fostered by those employments which keep women
in constant association, not only by day, but often at night also, without
the company of men. This is, for instance, the case in convents, and
formerly, at all events,--however, it may be today,--homosexuality was
held to be very prevalent in convents. This was especially so in the
eighteenth century when very many young girls, without any religious
vocation, were put into convents.[161] The same again is today the case
with the female servants in large hotels, among whom homosexual practices
nave been found very common.[162] Laycock, many years ago, noted the
prevalence of manifestations of this kind, which he regarded as
hysterical, among seamstresses, lace-makers, etc., confined for hours in
close contact with one another in heated rooms. The circumstances under
which numbers of young women are employed during the day in large shops
and factories, and sleep in the establishment, two in a room or even two
in a bed, are favorable to the development of homosexual practices.

    In England it is seldom that anyone cares to investigate these
    phenomena, though, they certainly exist. They have been more
    thoroughly studied elsewhere. Thus, in Rome, Niceforo, who
    studied various aspects of the lives of the working classes,
    succeeded in obtaining much precise information concerning the
    manners and customs of the young girls in dressmaking and
    tailoring work-rooms. He remarks that few of those who see the
    "virtuous daughters of the people," often not more than 12 years
    old, walking along the streets with the dressmaker's box under
    their arm, modestly bent head and virginal air, realize the
    intense sexual preoccupations often underlying these appearances.
    In the work-rooms the conversation perpetually revolves around
    sexual subjects in the absence of the mistress or forewoman, and
    even in her presence the slang that prevails in the work-rooms
    leads to dialogues with a double meaning. A state of sexual
    excitement is thus aroused which sometimes relieves itself
    mentally by psychic onanism, sometimes by some form of
    masturbation; one girl admitted to Niceforo that by allowing her
    thoughts to dwell on the subject while at work she sometimes
    produced physical sexual excitement as often as four times a day.
    (See also vol. i of these _Studies_, "Auto-erotism.") Sometimes,
    however, a vague kind of homosexuality is produced, the girls,
    excited by their own thoughts and their conversation, being still
    further excited by contact with each other. "In summer, in one
    work-room, some of the girls wear no drawers, and they unbutton
    their bodices, and work with crossed legs, more or less
    uncovered. In this position, the girls draw near and inspect one
    another; some boast of their white legs, and, then the petticoats
    are raised altogether for more careful comparison. Many enjoy
    this inspection of nudity, and experience real sexual pleasure.
    From midday till 2 P.M., during the hours of greatest heat, when
    all are in this condition, and the mistress, in her chemise (and
    sometimes, with no shame at the workers' presence, even without
    it), falls asleep on the sofa, all the girls, _without one
    exception_, masturbate themselves. The heat seems to sharpen
    their desires and morbidly arouse all their senses. The
    voluptuous emotions, restrained during the rest of the day, break
    out with irresistible force; stimulated by the spectacle of each
    other's nakedness, some place their legs together and thus
    heighten the spasm by the illusion of contact with a man." In
    this way they reach mutual masturbation. "It is noteworthy,
    however," Niceforo points out, "that these couples for mutual
    masturbation are never Lesbian couples. Tribadism is altogether
    absent from the factories and work-rooms." He even believes that
    it does not exist among girls of the working class. He further
    describes how, in another work-room, during the hot hours of the
    day in summer, when no work is done, some of the girls retire
    into the fitting-room, and, having fastened their chemises round
    their legs and thighs with pins, so as to imitate trousers, play
    at being men and pretend to have intercourse with the others.
    (Niceforo, _Il Gergo_, cap. vi, 1897, Turin.) I have reproduced
    these details from Niceforo's careful study because, although
    they may seem to be trivial at some points, they clearly bring
    out the very important distinction between a merely temporary
    homosexuality and true inversion. The amusements of these young
    girls may not be considered eminently innocent or wholesome, but,
    on the other hand, they are not radically morbid or vicious. They
    are strictly, and even consciously, _play_; they are dominated by
    the thought that the true sexual ideal is normal relationship
    with a man, and they would certainly disappear in the presence of
    a man.

    It must be remembered that Niceforo's observations were made
    among girls who were mostly young. In the large factories, where
    many adult women are employed, the phenomena tend to be rarer,
    but of much less trivial and playful character. At Wolverhampton,
    some forty years ago, the case was reported of a woman in a
    galvanizing "store" who, after dinner, indecently assaulted a
    girl who was a new hand. Two young women held the victim down,
    and this seems to show that homosexual vice was here common and
    recognized. No doubt, this case is exceptional in its brutality.
    It throws, however, a significant light on the conditions
    prevailing in factories. In Spain, in the large factories where
    many adult women are employed, especially in the great tobacco
    factory at Seville, Lesbian relationships seem to be not
    uncommon. Here the women work in an atmosphere which in summer is
    so hot that they throw off the greater part of their clothing, to
    such an extent that a bell is rung whenever a visitor is
    introduced into a work-room, in order to warn the workers. Such
    an environment predisposes to the formation of homosexual
    relationships. When I was in Spain some years ago an incident
    occurred at the Seville Fábrica de Tabacos which attracted much
    attention in the newspapers, and, though it was regarded as
    unusual, it throws light on the life of the workers. One morning
    as the women were entering the work-room and amid the usual scene
    of animation changing their Manila shawls for the light costume
    worn during work, one drew out a small clasp-knife and, attacking
    another, rapidly inflicted six or seven wounds on her face and
    neck, threatening to kill anyone who approached. Both these
    _cigarreras_ were superior workers, engaged in the most skilled
    kind of work, and had been at the factory for many years. In
    appearance they were described as presenting a striking contrast:
    the aggressor, who was 48 years of age, was of masculine air,
    tall and thin, with an expression of firm determination on her
    wrinkled face; the victim, on the other hand, whose age was 30,
    was plump and good-looking and of pleasing disposition. The
    reason at first assigned for the attack on the younger woman was
    that her mother had insulted the elder woman's son. It appeared,
    however, that a close friendship had existed between the two
    women, that latterly the younger woman had formed a friendship
    with the forewoman of her work-room, and that the elder woman,
    animated by jealousy, then resolved to murder both; this design
    was frustrated by the accidental absence of the forewoman that
    day.

In theaters the abnormal sexuality stimulated by such association in work
is complicated by the general tendency for homosexuality to be connected
with dramatic aptitude, a point to which I shall have to refer later on. I
am indebted to a friend for the following note: "Passionate friendships
among girls, from the most innocent to the most elaborate excursions in
the direction of Lesbos, are extremely common in theaters, both among
actresses and, even more, among chorus-and ballet-girls. Here the
pell-mell of the dressing-rooms, the wait of perhaps two hours between the
performances, during which all the girls are cooped up, in a state of
inaction and of excitement, in a few crowded dressing-rooms, afford every
opportunity for the growth of this particular kind of sentiment. In most
of the theaters there is a little circle of girls, somewhat avoided by the
others, or themselves careless of further acquaintanceship, who profess
the most unbounded devotion to one another. Most of these girls are
equally ready to flirt with the opposite sex, but I know certain ones
among them who will scarcely speak to a man, and who are never seen
without their particular 'pal' or 'chum,' who, if she gets moved to
another theater, will come around and wait for her friend at the
stage-door. But here, again, it is but seldom that the experience is
carried very far. The fact is that the English girl, especially of the
lower and middle classes, whether she has lost her virtue or not, is
extremely fettered by conventional notions. Ignorance and habit are two
restraining influences from the carrying out of this particular kind of
perversion to its logical conclusions. It is, therefore, among the upper
ranks, alike of society and of prostitution, that Lesbianism is most
definitely to be met with, for here we have much greater liberty of
action, and much greater freedom from prejudices."

With girls, as with boys, it is in the school, at the evolution of
puberty, that homosexuality usually first shows itself. It may originate
in a way mainly peripheral or mainly central. In the first case, two
children, perhaps when close to each other in bed, more or less
unintentionally generate in each other a certain amount of sexual
irritation, which they foster by mutual touching and kissing. This is a
spurious kind of homosexuality, the often precocious play of the normal
instinct. In the girl who is congenitally predisposed to homosexuality it
will continue and develop; in the majority it will be forgotten as quickly
as possible, not without shame, in the presence of the normal object of
sexual love.

    I may quote as fairly typical the following observation supplied
    by a lady who cannot be called inverted: "Like so many other
    children and girls, I was first taught self-indulgence by a girl
    at school, and I passed on my knowledge to one or two others,
    with one of whom I remember once, when we were just 16, spending
    the night sensually. We were horribly ashamed after, and that was
    the only time. When I was only 8 there was a girl of 13 who liked
    to play with my body, and taught me to play with hers, though I
    rather disliked doing so. We slept together, and this went on at
    intervals for six months. These things, for the sake of getting
    enjoyment, and not with any passion, are not uncommon with
    children, but less common, I think, than people sometimes
    imagine. I believe I could recall without much difficulty, the
    number of times such things happened with me. In the case I
    mentioned when I did for one night feel--or try to excite in
    myself and my girl-companion of 16--sensual passion, we had as
    little children slept together a few times and done these things,
    and meeting after an absence, just at that age, recalled our
    childish memories, and were carried away by sexual impulse. But I
    never felt any peculiar affection or passion for her even at the
    time, nor she for me. We only felt that our sensual nature was
    strong at the time, and had betrayed us into something we were
    ashamed of, and, therefore, we avoided letting ourselves sleep
    too close after that day. I think we disliked each other, and
    were revolted whenever we thought of that night, feeling that
    each had degraded the other and herself."

The cases in which the source is mainly central, rather than peripheral,
nevertheless merge into the foregoing, with no clear line of demarcation.
In such cases a girl forms an ardent attachment for another girl, probably
somewhat older than herself, often a schoolfellow, sometimes her
schoolmistress, upon whom she will lavish an astonishing amount of
affection and devotion. There may or not be any return; usually the return
consists of a gracious acceptance of the affectionate services. The girl
who expends this wealth of devotion is surcharged with emotion, but she is
often unconscious or ignorant of the sexual impulse, and she seeks for no
form of sexual satisfaction. Kissing and the privilege of sleeping with
the friend are, however, sought, and at such times it often happens that
even the comparatively unresponsive friend feels more or less definite
sexual emotion (pudendal turgescence, with secretion of mucus and
involuntary twitching of the neighboring muscles), though little or no
attention may be paid to this phenomenon, and in the common ignorance of
girls concerning sex matters it may not be understood. In some cases there
is an attempt, either instinctive or intentional, to develop the sexual
feeling by close embraces and kissing. This rudimentary kind of homosexual
relationship is, I believe, more common among girls than among boys, and
for this there are several reasons: (1) a boy more often has some
acquaintance with sexual phenomena, and would frequently regard such a
relationship as unmanly; (2) the girl has a stronger need of affection
and self-devotion to another person than a boy has; (3) she has not, under
our existing social conditions which compel young women to hold the
opposite sex at arm's length, the same opportunities of finding an outlet
for her sexual emotions; while (4) conventional propriety recognizes a
considerable degree of physical intimacy between girls, thus at once
encouraging and cloaking the manifestations of homosexuality.

The ardent attachments which girls in schools and colleges form to each
other and to their teachers constitute a subject which is of considerable
psychological interest and of no little practical importance.[163] These
girlish devotions, on the borderland between friendship and sexual
passion, are found in all countries where girls are segregated for
educational purposes, and their symptoms are, on the whole, singularly
uniform, though they vary in intensity and character to some extent, from
time to time and from place to place, sometimes assuming an epidemic form.
They have been most carefully studied in Italy, where Obici and
Marchesini--an alienist and a psychologist working in conjunction--have
analyzed the phenomena with remarkable insight and delicacy and much
wealth of illustrative material.[164] But exactly the same phenomena are
everywhere found in English girls' schools, even of the most modern type,
and in some of the large American women's colleges they have sometimes
become so acute as to cause much anxiety.[165] On the whole, however, it
is probable that such manifestations are regarded more indulgently in
girls' than in boys' schools, and in view of the fact that the
manifestations of affection are normally more pronounced between girls
than between boys, this seems reasonable. The head mistress of an English
training college writes:--

"My own assumption on such, matters has been that affection does naturally
belong to the body as well as the mind, and between two women is naturally
and innocently expressed by, caresses. I have never therefore felt that I
ought to warn any girl against the physical element in friendship, as
such. The test I should probably suggest to them would be the same as one
would use for any other relation--was the friendship helping life as a
whole, making them keener, kinder, more industrious, etc., or was it
hindering it?"

Passionate friendships, of a more or less unconsciously sexual character,
are common even outside and beyond school-life. It frequently happens that
a period during which a young woman falls in love at a distance with some
young man of her acquaintance alternates with periods of intimate
attachment to a friend of her own sex. No congenital inversion is usually
involved. It generally happens, in the end, either that relationship with
a man brings the normal impulse into permanent play, or the steadying of
the emotions in the stress of practical life leads to a knowledge of the
real nature of such feelings and a consequent distaste for them. In some
cases, on the other hand, such relationships, especially when formed after
school-life, are fairly permanent. An energetic emotional woman, not
usually beautiful, will perhaps be devoted to another who may have found
some rather specialized lifework, but who may be very unpractical, and who
has probably a very feeble sexual instinct; she is grateful for her
friends's devotion, but may not actively reciprocate it. The actual
specific sexual phenomena generated in such cases vary very greatly. The
emotion may be latent or unconscious; it may be all on one side; it is
often more or less recognized and shared. Such cases are on the borderland
of true sexual inversion, but they cannot be included within its region.
Sex in these relationships is scarcely the essential and fundamental
element; it is more or less subordinate and parasitic. There is often a
semblance of a sex-relationship from the marked divergence of the friends
in physical and psychic qualities, and the nervous development of one or
both the friends is sometimes slightly abnormal. We have to regard such
relationships as hypertrophied friendships, the hypertrophy being due to
unemployed sexual instinct.

    The following narrative is written by a lady who holds a
    responsible educational position: "A friend of mine, two or three
    years older than myself (I am 31), and living in the same house
    with me, has been passing through a very unhappy time. Long
    nervous strain connected with this has made her sleep badly, and
    apt to wake in terrible depression about 3 o'clock in the
    morning. In the early days of our friendship, about eight months
    ago, she occasionally at these times took refuge with me. After a
    while I insisted on her consulting a doctor, who advised her,
    amongst other things, not to sleep alone. Thenceforth for two or
    three months I induced her to share my room. After a week or two
    she generally shared my bed for a time at the beginning of the
    night, as it seemed to help her to sleep.

    "Before this, about the second or third time that she came to me
    in the early morning, I had been surprised and a little
    frightened to find how pleasant it was to me to have her, and how
    reluctant I was that she should go away. When we began regularly
    to sleep in the same room, the physical part of our affection
    grew rapidly very strong. It is natural for me generally to
    caress my friends, but I soon could not be alone in a room with
    this one without wanting to have my arms round her. It would have
    been intolerable to me to live with her without being able to
    touch her. We did not discuss it, but it was evident that the
    desire was even stronger in her than in me.

    "For some time it satisfied us fully to be in bed together. One
    night, however, when she had had a cruelly trying day and I
    wanted to find all ways of comforting her, I bared by breast for
    her to lie on. Afterward it was clear that neither of us could be
    satisfied without this. She groped for it like a child, and it
    excited me much more to feel that than to uncover my breast and
    arms altogether at once.

    "Much of this excitement was sexually localized, and I was
    haunted in the daytime by images of holding this woman in my
    arms. I noticed also that my inclination to caress my other women
    friends was not diminished, but increased. All this disturbed me
    a good deal. The homosexual practices of which I had read lately
    struck me as merely nasty; I could not imagines myself tempted to
    them;--at the same time the whole matter was new to me, for I had
    never wanted anyone even to share my bed before; I had read that
    sex instinct was mysterious and unexpected, and I felt that I did
    not know what might come next.

    "I knew only one elder person whom (for wide-mindedness,
    gentleness, and saintliness) I could bear to consult; and to this
    person, a middle-aged man, I wrote for advice. He replied by a
    long letter of the most tender warning. I had better not weaken
    my influence with my friend, he wrote, by going back suddenly or
    without her consent, but I was to be very wary of going further;
    there was fire about. I tried to put this into practice by
    restraining myself constantly in our intercourse, by refraining
    from caressing her, for instance, when I wanted to caress her and
    knew that she wanted it. The only result seemed to be that the
    desire was more tormenting and constant than ever.

    "If at this point my friend had happened to die or go away, and
    the incident had come to an end, I should probably have been left
    nervous in these matters for years to come. I should have
    faltered in the opinion I had always held, that bodily
    expressions of love between women were as innocent as they were
    natural; and I might have come nearer than I ever expected to the
    doctrine of those convent teachers who forbid their girls to
    embrace one another for fear an incalculable instinct should
    carry them to the edge of an abyss.

    "As it was, after a while I said a little on the subject to my
    friend herself. I had been inclined to think that she might share
    my anxiety, but she did not share it at all. She said to me that
    she did not like these thoughts, that she cared for me more than
    She had ever done for any person except one (now causing most of
    her unhappiness), and wanted me in all possible ways, and that it
    would make her sad to feel that I was trying not to want her in
    one way because I thought it was wrong.

    "On my part, I knew very well how much she did need and want me.
    I knew that in relations with others she was spending the
    greatest effort in following a course that I urged on her, and
    was doing what I thought right in spite of the most painful
    pressure on her to do wrong; and that she needed all the support
    and comfort I could give her. It seemed to me, after our
    conversation, that the right path for me lay not in giving way to
    fears and scruples, but in giving my friend straightforwardly all
    the love I could and all the kinds of love I could. I decided to
    keep my eyes open for danger, but meanwhile to go on.

    "We were living alone together at the time, and thenceforward we
    did as we liked doing. As soon as we could, we moved to a bed
    where we could sleep together all night. In the day when no one
    was there we sat as close together as we wished, which was very
    close. We kissed each other as often as we wanted to kiss each
    other, which was very many times a day.

    "The results of this, so far as I can see, have been wholly good.
    We love each other warmly, but no temptation to nastiness has
    ever come, and I cannot see now that it is at all likely to come.
    With custom, the localized physical excitement has practically
    disappeared, and I am no longer obsessed by imagined embraces.
    The spiritual side of our affection seems to have grown steadily
    stronger and more profitable since the physical side has, been
    allowed to take its natural place."

A class in which homosexuality, while fairly distinct, is only slightly
marked, is formed by the women to whom the actively inverted woman is most
attracted. These women differ, in the first place, from the normal, or
average, woman in that they are not repelled or disgusted by lover-like
advances from persons of their own sex. They are not usually attractive to
the average man, though to this rule there are many exceptions. Their
faces may be plain or ill-made, but not seldom they possess good figures:
a point which is apt to carry more weight with the inverted woman than
beauty of face. Their sexual impulses are seldom well marked, but they are
of strongly affectionate nature. On the whole, they are women who are not
very robust and well developed, physically or nervously, and who are not
well adapted for child-bearing, but who still possess many excellent
qualities, and they are always womanly. One may, perhaps, say that they
are the pick of the women whom the average man would pass by. No doubt,
this is often the reason why they are open to homosexual advances, but I
do not think it is the sole reason. So far as they may be said to
constitute a class, they seem to possess a genuine, though not precisely
sexual, preference for women over men, and it is this coldness, rather
than lack of charm, which often renders men rather indifferent to them.

The actively inverted woman usually differs from the woman of the class
just mentioned in one fairly essential character: a more or less distinct
trace of masculinity. She may not be, and frequently is not, what would be
called a "mannish" woman, for the latter may imitate men on grounds of
taste and habit unconnected with sexual perversion, while in the inverted
woman the masculine traits are part of an organic instinct which she by no
means always wishes to accentuate. The inverted woman's masculine element
may, in the least degree, consist only in the fact that she makes advances
to the woman to whom she is attracted and treats all men in a cool,
direct manner, which may not exclude comradeship, but which excludes every
sexual relationship, whether of passion or merely of coquetry. Usually the
inverted woman feels absolute indifference toward men, and not seldom
repulsion. And this feeling, as a rule, is instinctively reciprocated by
men. At the same time bisexual women are at least as common as bisexual
men.

    HISTORY XXXIV.--Miss S., aged 38, living in a city of the United
    States, a business woman of fine intelligence, prominent in
    professional and literary circles. Her general health is good,
    but she belongs to a family in which there is a marked
    neuropathic element. She is of rather phlegmatic temperament,
    well poised, always perfectly calm and self-possessed, rather
    retiring in disposition, with gentle, dignified bearing.

    She says she cannot care for men, but that all her life has been
    "glorified and made beautiful by friendship with women," whom she
    loves as a man loves women. Her character is, however, well
    disciplined, and her friends are not aware of the nature of her
    affections. She tries not to give all her love to one person, and
    endeavors (as she herself expresses it) to use this "gift of
    loving" as a stepping-stone to high mental and spiritual
    attainments. She is described by one who has known her for
    several years as "having a high nature, and instincts unerringly
    toward high things."

    HISTORY XXXV.--Miss B., artist, of German ancestry on the
    paternal side. Among her brothers and sisters, one is of neurotic
    temperament and another is inverted. She is herself healthy. She
    has no repugnance to men, and would even like to try marriage, if
    the union were not permanent, but she has seldom felt any sexual
    attraction to a man. In one exceptional instance, early in life,
    realizing that she was not adapted for heterosexual
    relationships, she broke off the engagement she had formed. Much
    later in life, she formed a more permanent relationship with a
    man of congenial tastes.

    She is attracted to women of various kinds, though she recognizes
    that there are some women to whom only men are attracted. Many
    years since she had a friend to whom she was very strongly
    attached, but the physical manifestations do not appear to have
    become pronounced. After that her thoughts were much occupied by
    several women to whom she made advances, which were not
    encouraged to pass beyond ordinary friendship. In one case,
    however, she formed an intimate relationship with a girl somewhat
    younger than herself, and a very feminine personality, who
    accepted Miss B.'s ardent love with pleasure, but in a passive
    manner, and did not consider that the relationship would stand in
    the way of her marrying, though she would on no account tell her
    husband. The relationship for the first time aroused Miss B.'s
    latent sexual emotions. She found sexual satisfaction in kissing
    and embracing her friend's body, but there appeared to be no
    orgasm. The relationship made a considerable change in her, and
    rendered her radiant and happy.

    In her behavior toward men Miss B. reveals no sexual shyness. Men
    are not usually attracted to her. There is nothing striking in
    her appearance; her person and manners, though careless, are not
    conspicuously man-like. She is fond of exercise and smokes a good
    deal.

    HISTORY XXXVI.--Miss H., aged 30. Among her paternal relatives
    there is a tendency to eccentricity and to nervous disease. Her
    grandfather drank; her father was eccentric and hypochondriacal,
    and suffered from obsessions. Her mother and mother's relatives
    are entirely healthy, and normal in disposition.

    At the age of 4 she liked to see the nates of a little girl who
    lived near. When she was about 6, the nurse-maid, sitting in the
    fields, used to play with her own parts, and told her to do
    likewise, saying it would make a baby come; she occasionally
    touched herself in consequence, but without producing any effect
    of any kind. When she was about 8 she used to see various
    nurse-maids uncover their children's sexual parts and show them
    to each other. She used to think about this when alone, and also
    about whipping. She never cared to play with dolls, and in her
    games always took the part of a man. Her first rudimentary
    sex-feelings appeared at the age of 8 or 9, and were associated
    with dreams of whipping and being whipped, which were most vivid
    between the ages of 11 and 14, when they died away on the
    appearance of affection for girls. She menstruated at 12.

    Her earliest affection, at the age of 13, was for a schoolfellow,
    a graceful, coquettish girl with long golden hair and blue eyes.
    Her affection displayed itself in performing all sorts of small
    services for this girl, in constantly thinking about her, and in
    feeling deliciously grateful for the smallest return. At the age
    of 14 she had a similar passion for a girl cousin; she used to
    look forward with ecstasy to her visits, and especially to the
    rare occasions when the cousin slept with her; her excitement was
    then so great that she could not sleep, but there was no
    conscious sexual excitement. At the age of 15 or 16 she fell in
    love with another cousin; her experiences with this girl were
    full of delicious sensations; if the cousin only touched her
    neck, a thrill went through her body which she now regards as
    sexual. Again, at 17, she had an overwhelming, passionate
    fascination for a schoolfellow, a pretty, commonplace girl, whom
    she idealized and etherealized to an extravagant extent. This
    passion was so violent that her health was, to some extent,
    impaired; but it was purely unselfish, and there was nothing
    sexual in it. On leaving school at the age of 19 she met a girl
    of about the same age as herself, very womanly, but not much
    attracted to men. This girl became very much attached to her, and
    sought to gain her love. After some time Miss H. was attracted by
    this love, partly from the sense of power it gave her, and an
    intimate relation grew up. This relation became vaguely physical,
    Miss H. taking the initiative, but her friend desiring such
    relations and taking extreme pleasure in them; they used to touch
    and kiss each other tenderly (especially on the _mons veneris_),
    with equal ardor. They each experienced a strong pleasurable
    feeling in doing this, and sexual erethism, but no orgasm, and it
    does not appear that this ever occurred. Their general behavior
    to each other was that of lovers, but they endeavored, as far as
    possible, to hide this fact from the world. This relation lasted
    for several years, and would have continued, had not Miss H.'s
    friend, from religious and moral scruples, put an end to the
    physical relationship. Miss H. had been very well and happy
    during this relationship; the interference with it seems to have
    exerted a disturbing influence, and also to have aroused her
    sexual desires, though she was still scarcely conscious of their
    real nature.

    Soon afterward another girl of exceedingly voluptuous type made
    love to Miss H., to which the latter yielded, giving way to her
    feelings as well as to her love of domination. She was afterward
    ashamed of this episode, though the physical element in it had
    remained vague and indefinite. Her remorse was so great that when
    her friend, repenting her scruples, implored her to let their
    relationship be on the same footing as of old, Miss H., in her
    return, resisted every effort to restore the physical relation.
    She kept to this resolution for some years, and sought to divert
    her thoughts into intellectual channels. When she again formed an
    intimate relationship it was with a congenial friend, and lasted
    for several years.

    She has never masturbated. Occasionally, but very rarely, she has
    had dreams of riding accompanied by pleasurable sexual emotions
    (she cannot recall any actual experience to suggest this, though
    fond of riding). She has never had any kind of sexual dreams
    about a man; of late years she has occasionally had erotic dreams
    about women.

    Her feeling toward men is friendly, but she has never had sexual
    attraction toward a man. She likes them as good comrades, as men
    like each other. She enjoys the society of men on account of
    their intellectual attraction. She is herself very active in
    social and intellectual work. Her feeling toward marriage has
    always been one of repugnance. She can, however, imagine a man
    whom she could love or marry.

    She is attracted to womanly women, sincere, reserved, pure, but
    courageous in character. She is not attracted to intellectual
    women, but at the same time cannot endure silly women. The
    physical qualities that attract her most are not so much beauty
    of face as a graceful, but not too slender, body with beautiful
    curves. The women she is drawn to are usually somewhat younger
    than herself. Women are much attracted to her, and without any
    effort on her part. She likes to take the active part and
    protecting rôle with them. She is herself energetic in character,
    and with a somewhat neurotic temperament.

    She finds sexual satisfaction in tenderly touching, caressing,
    and kissing the loved one's body. (There is no _cunnilinctus_,
    which she regards with abhorrence.) She feels more tenderness
    than passion. There is a high degree of sexual erethism when
    kissing, but orgasm is rare and is produced by lying on the
    friend or by the friend lying on her, without any special
    contact. She likes being herself kissed, but not so much as
    taking the active part.

    She believes that homosexual love is morally right when it is
    really part of a person's nature, and provided that the nature of
    homosexual love is always made plain to the object of such
    affection. She does not approve of it as a mere makeshift, or
    expression of sensuality, in normal women. She has sometimes
    resisted the sexual expression of her feelings, once for years at
    a time, but always in vain. The effect on her of loving women is
    distinctly good, she asserts, both spiritually and physically,
    while repression leads to morbidity and hysteria. She has
    suffered much from neurasthenia at various periods, but under
    appropriate treatment it has slowly diminished. The inverted
    instinct is too deeply rooted to eradicate, but it is well under
    control.

    HISTORY XXXVII.--Miss M., the daughter of English parents (both
    musicians), who were both of what is described as "intense"
    temperament, and there is a neurotic element in the family,
    though no history of insanity or alcoholism, and she is herself
    free from nervous disease. At birth she was very small. In a
    portrait taken at the age of 4 the nose, mouth, and ears are
    abnormally large, and she wears a little boy's hat. As a child
    she did not care for dolls or for pretty clothes, and often
    wondered why other children found so much pleasure in them. "As
    far back as my memory goes," she writes, "I cannot recall a time
    when I was not different from other children. I felt bored when
    other little girls came to play with me, though I was never rough
    or boisterous in my sports." Sewing was distasteful to her. Still
    she cared little more for the pastimes of boys, and found her
    favorite amusement in reading, especially adventures and
    fairy-tales. She was always quiet, timid, and self-conscious. The
    instinct first made its appearance in the latter part of her
    eighth or the first part of her ninth year. She was strongly
    attracted by the face of a teacher who used to appear at a
    side-window on the second floor of the school-building and ring a
    bell to summon the children to their classes. The teacher's face
    seemed very beautiful, but sad, and she thought about her
    continually, though not coming in personal contact with, her. A
    year later this teacher was married and left the school, and the
    impression gradually faded away. "There was no consciousness of
    sex at this time," she wrote; "no knowledge of sexual matters or
    practices, and the feelings evoked were feelings of pity and
    compassion and tenderness for a person who seemed to be very sad
    and very much depressed. It is this quality or combination of
    qualities which has always made the appeal in my own case. I may
    go on for years in comparative peace, when something may happen,
    in spite of my busy practical life, to call it all out." The next
    feelings were experienced when, she was about 11 years of age. A
    young lady came to visit a next-door neighbor, and made so
    profound an impression on the child that she was ridiculed by her
    playmates for preferring to sit in a dark corner on the
    lawn--where she might watch this young lady--rather than to play
    games. Being a sensitive child, after this experience she was
    careful not to reveal her feelings to anyone. She felt
    instinctively that in this she was different from others. Her
    sense of beauty developed early, but there was always an
    indefinable feeling of melancholy associated with it. The
    twilight, a dark night when the stars shone brightly; these had a
    very depressing effect upon her, but possessed a strong
    attraction nevertheless, and pictures appealed to her. At the age
    of 12 she fell in love with a schoolmate, two years older than
    herself, who was absorbed in the boys and never suspected this
    affection; she wept bitterly because they could not be confirmed
    at the same time, but feared to appear undignified and
    sentimental by revealing her feelings. The face of this friend
    reminded her of one of Dolce's Madonnas which she loved. Later
    on, at the age of 16, she loved another friend very dearly and
    devoted herself to her care. There was a tinge of masculinity
    among the women of this friend's family, but it is not clear if
    she can be termed inverted. This was the happiest period of Miss
    M.'s life. Upon the death of this friend, who had long been in
    ill health, eight years afterward, she resolved never to let her
    heart go out to anyone again.

    Specific physical gratification plays no part in these
    relationships. The physical sexual feelings began to assert
    themselves at puberty, but not in association with her ideal
    emotions. "In that connection," she writes, "I would have
    considered such things a sacrilege. I fought them and in a
    measure successfully. The practice of self-indulgence which might
    have become a daily habit was only occasional. Her image evoked
    at such times drove away such feelings, for which I felt a
    repugnance, much preferring the romantic ideal feelings. In this
    way, quite unconscious of the fact that I was at all different
    from, any other person, I contrived to train myself to suppress
    or at least to dominate my physical sensations when they arose.
    That is the reason why friendship and love have always seemed
    such holy and beautiful things to me. I have never connected the
    two sets of feelings. I think I am as strongly sexed as anyone,
    but I am able to hold a friend in my arms and experience deep
    comfort and peace without having even a hint of physical sexual
    feeling. Sexual expression may be quite necessary at certain
    times and right under certain conditions, but I am convinced that
    free expression of affection along sentimental channels will do
    much to minimize the necessity for it along specifically sexual
    channels. I have gone three months without the physical outlet.
    The only time I was ever on the verge of nervous prostration was
    after having suppressed the instinct for ten months. The other
    feelings, which I do not consider as sexual feelings at all, so
    fill my life in every department--love, literature, poetry,
    music, professional and philanthropic activities--that I am able
    to let the physical take care of itself. When the physical
    sensations come, it is usually when I am not thinking of a loved
    one at all. I could dissipate them by raising my thought to that
    spiritual friendship. I do not know if this was right and wise. I
    know it is what occurred. It seems a good thing to practise some
    sort of inhibition of the centers and acquire this kind of
    domination. One bad result, however, was that I suffered much at
    times from the physical sensations, and felt horribly depressed
    and wretched whenever they seemed to get the better of me."

    "I have been able," she writes, "successfully to master the
    desire for a more perfect and complete expression of my feelings,
    and I have done so without serious detriment to my health." "I
    love few people," she writes again, "but in these instances when
    I have permitted my heart to go out to a friend I have always
    experienced most exalted feelings, and have been made better by
    them morally, mentally, and spiritually. Love is with me a
    religion."

    With regard to her attitude toward the other sex, she writes: "I
    have never felt a dislike for men, but have good comrades among
    them. During my childhood I associated with both girls and boys,
    enjoying them all, but wondering why the girls cared to flirt
    with boys. Later in life I have had other friendships with men,
    some of whom cared for me, much to my regret, for, naturally, I
    do not care to marry."

    She is a musician, and herself attributes her nature in part to
    artistic temperament. She is of good intelligence, and shows
    remarkable talent for various branches of physical science. She
    is about 5 feet 4 inches in height, and her features are rather
    large. The pelvic measurements are normal, and the external
    sexual organs are fairly normal in most respects, though somewhat
    small. At a period ten years subsequent to the date of this
    history, further examination, under anesthetics, by a
    gynecologist, showed no traces of ovary on one side. The general
    conformation of the body is feminine. But with arms, palms up,
    extended in front of her with inner sides of hands touching, she
    cannot bring the inner sides of forearms together, as nearly
    every woman can, showing that the feminine angle of arm is lost.

    She is left-handed and shows a better development throughout on
    the left side. She is quiet and dignified, but has many boyish
    tricks of manner and speech which seem to be instinctive; she
    tries to watch herself continually, however, in order to avoid
    them, affecting feminine ways and feminine interests, but always
    being conscious of an effort in so doing.

    Miss M. can see nothing wrong in her feelings; and, until, at the
    age of 28, she came across the translation of Krafft-Ebing's
    book, she had no idea "that feelings like mine were 'under the
    ban of society' as he puts it, or were considered unnatural and
    depraved." She would like to help to bring light on the subject
    and to lift the shadow from other lives. "I emphatically
    protest," she says, "against the uselessness and the inhumanity
    of attempts to 'cure' inverts. I am quite sure they have perfect
    right to live in freedom and happiness as long as they live
    unselfish lives. One must bear in mind that it is the soul that
    needs to be satisfied, and not merely the senses."

    HISTORY XXXVIII.--Miss V., aged 35. Throughout early life up to
    adult age she was a mystery to herself, and morbidly conscious of
    some fundamental difference between herself and other people.
    There was no one she could speak to about this peculiarity. In
    the effort to conquer it, or to ignore it, she became a hard
    student and has attained success in the profession she adopted. A
    few years ago she came across a book on sexual inversion which
    proved to be a complete revelation to her of her own nature, and,
    by showing her that she was not an anomaly to be regarded with
    repulsion, brought her comfort and peace. She is willing that her
    experiences should be published for the sake of other women who
    may be suffering as in the past she has suffered.

    "I am a teacher in a college for women. I am 34 years old and of
    medium size. Up to the age of 30 I looked much younger, and since
    older, than my age. Until 21 I had a strikingly child-like
    appearance. My physique has nothing masculine in it that I am
    aware of; but I am conscious that my walk is mannish, and I have
    very frequently been told that I do things--such as
    sewing,--'just like a man.' My voice is quite low but not coarse.
    I dislike household work, but am fond of sports, gardening, etc.
    When so young that I cannot remember it, I learned to whistle, a
    practice at which I am still expert. When a young girl, I learned
    to smoke, and should still enjoy it.

    "Several men have been good friends of mine, but very few
    suitors. I scarcely ever feel at ease with a man; but women I
    understand and can nearly always make my friends.

    "I am of Scotch-Irish descent. My father's family were
    respectable, prosperous, religious people; my mother's family
    only semi-respectable, hard livers, shrewd, but not intelligent,
    industrious and money-getting, but fond of drinking and
    carousing. There were many illegitimates among them. Both
    grandmothers, though of little education, were unusual women. Of
    my four maternal uncles, three drank heavily.

    "When 43, my mother gave birth to me, the youngest of 8 children.
    Of those who grew to adult years, 2 seem quite normal sexually; 1
    is exceedingly erratic, entirely unprincipled, has been a thief
    and a forger, is a probable bigamist, and has betrayed several
    respectable women. Aside from his having inordinate desire, I
    know of no sexual abnormality. Another brother, married and a
    father, as a boy was much given to infatuations for men. I fancy
    this never went beyond infatuation and of late years has not been
    noticeable. A third brother, single, though much courted by women
    on account of his good looks and personal charm, is wholly
    unresponsive, has no gallantry, nor was ever, to my knowledge, a
    suitor. He is, however, fond of the society of women, especially
    those older than he. He has a somewhat effeminate voice and walk.
    Though he has begun of late years to smoke and drink a little,
    these habits sit rather oddly upon him. When a child, one of his
    favorite make-believe games was to pretend that he was a famous
    woman singer. At school he was always found hanging around the
    older girls.

    "As a child I loved to stay in the fields, refused to wear a
    sunbonnet, used to pretend I was a boy, climbed trees, and played
    ball. I liked to play with dolls, but I did not fondle them, or
    even make them dresses. When my hair was clipped, I was delighted
    and made everyone call me 'John.' I used to like to wear a man's
    broad-brimmed hat and make corn-cob pipes. I was very fond of my
    father and tried to imitate him as much as possible. Where
    animals were concerned, I was entirely fearless.

    "I think I was not a sexually precocious child, though I seem to
    have always known in a dim way that there were two sexes. Very
    early I had a sense of shame at having my body exposed; I
    remember on one occasion I could not be persuaded to undress
    before a young girl visitor. At that time I must have been about
    3. When I was 4 a neighbor who had often petted me took me on his
    lap and clasped my hand around his penis. Though he was
    interrupted in a moment, this made a lasting impression on me. I
    had no physical sensation nor did I have any conception of the
    significance of the act. Yet I had a slight feeling of repulsion,
    and I must have dimly felt that it was wrong, for I did not tell
    my mother. I was not accustomed to confide in her, for, though
    truthful, I was secretive.

    "At the age of 5 I commenced to attend a district school. I
    remember that on my first day I was Greatly attracted by a little
    girl who wore a bright-red dress.

    "My first definite knowledge of sex came in this way: I was
    attending Sabbath school and had become ambitious to read the
    Bible through. I had gotten as far as the account of the birth of
    Esau and Jacob, which aroused my curiosity. So I asked my mother
    the meaning of some word in the passage. She seemed embarrassed
    and evaded my question. This attitude stimulated my curiosity
    further, and I re-read the chapter until I understood it pretty
    well. Later I was further enlightened by girl playmates. I fancy
    I enjoyed listening to their talk and repeating what I knew on
    account of the mystery and secrecy with which sex subjects are
    surrounded rather than any sensual delight.

    "I cannot recall any act of mine growing directly from sexual
    feeling until I was 10 years old. Several other little girls and
    myself two or three times exposed private parts of our bodies to
    each other. In one instance, at least, I was the instigator. This
    act gave me some pleasure, though no distinct physical sensation.
    One incident I recall that happened when I was about 10. A girl
    cousin and myself had been playing 'house' together. I do not
    recall what immediately led to it, but we began to address each
    other as boys and tried to urinate through long tubes of some
    sort. I also recall feeling a vague interest in this process in
    animals, and observing them closely in the act.

    "From this time until I was about 14 I grew ruder, more
    boisterous and uncontrollable. Prior to this I had been a quite
    tractable child. When 12 I became interested in a boy in my grade
    at school, and tried to attract him, but failed. Once at a
    children's party where we were playing kissing games I tried to
    get him to kiss me, but he was unresponsive. I do not recall
    bothering myself about him after that. A year later I had a boy
    chum about whom my schoolmaster teased me. I thought this
    ridiculous. At the age of 13 I menstruated, a fact that caused me
    shame and anger. Gradually I grew to feel myself peculiar, why, I
    cannot explain. I did not seem to myself to be like other girls
    of my acquaintance. I adopted, as a defense, a brusque and
    defiant air. I spent a good deal of time playing alone in our
    backyard, where I made a pair of stilts, practised rope-walking,
    and such things. At school I felt I was not liked by the nicer
    girls and began to associate with girls whom I now believe were
    immoral, but whom I then supposed did nothing worse than talk in
    an obscene manner. I copied their conversation and grew more
    reckless and uncontrollable. The principal of the high school I
    was attending, I learned afterward, said I was the hardest pupil
    to control she had ever had. About this time I read a book where
    a girl was represented as saying she had a 'boy's soul in a
    girl's body.' The applicability of this to myself struck me at
    once, and I read the sentence to my mother who disgusted me by
    appearing shocked.

    "During this period I began to fall in love,--a practice which
    clung to me until I was nearly 30 years old. I recall various
    older women with whom I became much enamored, and one man. Of
    these there was only one with whom I became acquainted well
    enough to show any affection; another was a teacher, and another
    was a young married woman at whom I used to gaze ardently during
    an entire church service. Toward all my women teachers I had a
    somewhat sentimental attitude. They stimulated me, while the men
    gave me a wholly impersonal feeling. This abnormal sentimentality
    may have been caused, or at least was increased, by the reading
    of novels, some of a highly voluptuous nature. I began to read
    novels at 7, and from 11 to 14 I absorbed a great many
    undesirable ones. This lead to my picturing my future with a
    lover, fancying myself in romantic scenes and being caressed and
    embraced. I had always supposed I should marry. When about 5 I
    decided that when I grew up I would marry a certain young man who
    used to come to our house. Several years later he married, to my
    real disappointment. I had no affection for him, but merely
    thought he would make a desirable husband.

    "During my unhappy adolescence I heard that a former playmate was
    going to visit at my home. I began to look forward to the visit
    with much eagerness and at her arrival was much excited. I wished
    to stay alone with her and to caress her, and when we slept
    together I pressed my body against her in a sensual manner, which
    act she permitted, but without passion. I was greatly excited and
    could scarcely sleep. This was the first time I had acted in such
    a way, and after she left I felt shame and dislike for her. At
    future meetings there was never the least sensuality; we never
    referred to the first visit and are still friends, though not
    intimate.

    "A diary which I kept during my fourteenth and fifteenth years is
    filled with romantic sentiments and endearing terms applied
    successively to three girls of my own age. I had but a speaking
    acquaintance with them, but I was strongly infatuated with all.
    One boy was also the object of adoration.

    "During my thirteenth year I became for a time very religious and
    devoted to religious exercises. This passed and by my fourteenth
    year I had become heretical, but was still keenly sensitive to
    religious influences.

    "When barely 16 I slept one night with a woman of low morals. She
    acted toward me in a sensual manner and aroused my sexual
    feelings. I felt at the time that this was a sin, but I was
    carried away by passion. Afterward I hated this woman and
    despised myself.

    "I then went away to a co-educational boarding school. Here for
    the first time I became happy. A girl of my own age, of fine
    character and noticeable refinement, fell in love with me and
    caused me to reciprocate. On retrospection I believe this to have
    been a genuine and beautiful love on both sides. After a few
    months, however, our relation, at my initiative and against my
    friend's will, became a physical one. We expressed our affection
    by mutual caresses, close embraces and lying on each other's
    bodies. I sometimes touched her sexual organs sensually. All this
    contact gave me exquisite thrills. After three years we had a
    misunderstanding and separated. I was greatly grieved and
    troubled for many years, and came to regret greatly the physical
    relationship that had existed between us. My friend at length
    fell in love and married. I had several other slighter
    infatuations for women, was courted by several men to whom I
    remained cold and bored except in one instance, where I was
    somewhat touched, and finally found a lasting friendship with a
    woman who had fallen deeply in love with me in her school days
    and had never been able to care for any one else. She is a woman
    of considerable literary talent and of good general ability and
    high ideals. She is usually much liked by men. Her love for me is
    the most real thing in the world for me, and seems the most
    permanent. At first my feeling for her was almost purely
    physical, although there were no sexual relations. I hated this
    feeling and have succeeded in overcoming it pretty largely. At
    times after long separations we have embraced with great passion,
    at least on my part. This has always had a bad physical effect on
    me. At present, however, it very rarely occurs. We both consider
    sexual feelings degrading and deleterious to real love. Whether
    at any time we have had complete physical satisfaction or
    gratification, I hardly know. I have experienced very keen
    physical pleasure, mingled with what I took to be great mental
    exaltation and quickening of the emotions. This condition was
    brought about by close contact with the body of my friend,
    usually by lying upon it. But if by 'gratification' it is meant
    that desire, having been completely satisfied, ceases
    temporarily, I think I have never had that experience. If I did,
    it was when I was about 18 when I lived with a girl friend in
    intimate relations. Of late years, at any rate, it has never
    happened to me, and an embrace, however close, always leaves me
    with a desire for a closer union, both physical and spiritual. So
    a few years since, I came to the conclusion that it was
    impossible to obtain physical satisfaction through the woman I
    loved. I came to this conclusion because of the bad physical
    effects of contact. My sexual organs became highly sensitive and
    inflamed and I suffered pain from the inflammation and resulting
    leucorrhea. Should I allow myself to indulge in caresses this
    condition would return. My friend, fortunately, though very
    affectionate and demonstrative toward me, has very little sexual
    passion. The idea that our relationship is based upon it is very
    repugnant to her. I was at one time, a few years since, much
    discouraged and almost hopeless of being able to overcome my
    appetite, and I decided that we could not associate unless I