temperate indulgence of abnormal sexuality is no more injurious to the
individual than a similar indulgence of normal sexuality.
VI.
In the present state of over-population, it is not to be apprehended
that a small minority of men exercising sterile and abnormal sexual
inclinations should seriously injure society by limiting the increase of
the human race.
VII.
Legislation does not interfere with various forms of sterile intercourse
between men and women: (1) prostitution, (2) cohabitation in marriage
during the period of pregnancy, (3) artificial precautions against
impregnation, and (4) some abnormal modes of congress with the consent
of the female. It is therefore in an illogical position, when it
interferes with the action of those who are naturally sterile, on the
ground of maintaining the numerical standard of the population.
VIII.
The danger that unnatural vices, if tolerated by the law, would increase
until whole nations acquired them, does not seem to be formidable. The
position of women in our civilisation renders sexual relations among us
occidentals different from those of any country--ancient Greece and
Rome, modern Turkey and Persia--where antiphysical habits have hitherto
become endemic.
IX.
In modern France, since the promulgation of the Code Napoleon, sexual
inversion has been tolerated under the same restrictions as normal
sexuality. That is to say, violence and outrages to public decency are
punished, and minors are protected, but adults are allowed to dispose as
they like of their own persons. The experience of nearly a century shows
that in France, where sexual inversion is not criminal _per se_, there
has been no extension of it through society. Competent observers, like
agents of police, declare that London, in spite of our penal
legislation, is no less notorious for abnormal vice than Paris.
X.
Italy, by the Penal Code of 1889, adopted the principles of the Code
Napoleon on this point. It would be interesting to know what led to this
alteration of the Italian law. But it cannot be supposed that the
results of the Code Napoleon in France were not fully considered.
XI.
The severity of the English statutes render them almost incapable of
being put in force. In consequence of this the law is not unfrequently
evaded, and crimes are winked at.
XII.
At the same time our laws encourage blackmailing upon false accusation;
and the presumed evasion of their execution places from time to time a
vile weapon in the hands of unscrupulous politicians, to attack the
Government in office. Examples: the Dublin Castle Scandals of 1884, the
Cleveland Street Scandals of 1889.
XIII.
Those who hold that our penal laws are required by the interests of
society must turn their attention to the higher education. This still
rests on the study of the Greek and Latin classics, a literature
impregnated with pæderastia. It is carried on at public schools, where
young men are kept apart from females, and where homosexual vices are
frequent. The best minds of our youth are therefore exposed to the
influences of a pæderastic literature at the same time that they acquire
the knowledge and experience of unnatural practices. Nor is any trouble
taken to correct these adverse influences by physiological instruction
in the laws of sex.
XIV.
The points suggested for consideration are whether England is still
justified in restricting the freedom of adult persons, and rendering
certain abnormal forms of sexuality criminal, by any real dangers to
society: after it has been shown (1) that abnormal inclinations are
congenital, natural, and ineradicable in a large percentage of
individuals; (2) that we tolerate sterile intercourse of various types
between the two sexes; (3) that our legislation has not suppressed the
immorality in question; (4) that the operation of the Code Napoleon for
nearly a century has not increased this immorality in France; (5) that
Italy, with the experience of the Code Napoleon to guide her, adopted
its principles in 1889; (6) that the English penalties are rarely
inflicted to their full extent; (7) that their existence encourages
blackmailing, and their non-enforcement gives occasion for base
political agitation; (8) that our higher education is in open
contradiction to the spirit of our laws.[80]
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vindices Flammæ.
[2] Stieber, "Practisches Lehrbuch der Criminal-Polizei," 1860, cap. 19,
quoted by Ulrichs, "Araxes," p. 9. It is not necessary to multiply
evidences upon a point so patent to every man of the world. But I will
nevertheless translate a striking passage from Mantegazza (_op. cit._,
p. 148). "Nor is this infamous abomination confined to the vilest
classes of our society. It soars into the highest spheres of wealth and
intelligence. Within the narrow range of my own experience I have known
among the most scandalous sodomites a French journalist, a German poet,
an Italian statesman, and a Spanish jurist; all of these men of
exquisite taste and profound culture!" It would not be difficult to draw
up a list of English kings, bishops, deans, nobles of the highest rank,
poets, historians, dramatists, officers in the army and navy, civil
servants, schoolmasters in the most fashionable schools, physicians,
members of Parliament, journalists, barristers, who in their lifetime
were, as Dante says, "d'un medesmo peccato al mondo lerci." Many
belonging to the past are notorious; and no good could come of
mentioning the names of the living.
[3] This accusation against men who feel a sexual inclination for males
loses some of its significance when we consider how common the practice
of _Venus aversa_ is among libertines who love women. Parent-Duchatelet
asserts that no prostitute after a certain age has escaped it.
Coffignon, in his book on, "La Corruption à Paris" (p. 324), says:
"Chaque année, il passe en traîtement a l'hôpital de Lourcine une
centaine de femmes sodomistes.... Je suis persuadé qu'à l'hôpital de St.
Lazare la proportion des sodomistes est encore beaucoup plus grande....
Les maîtresses de maison, professant cet odieux principe que la
clientèle doit être satisfaite, ne permettent pas à une fille de se
refuser à une acte de sodomie." Tardieu (Attentats, &c., p. 198)
observes: "Chose singulière! c'est principalement des rapports conjugaux
que se sont produits les faits de cette nature."
[4] See Casper-Liman, vol. i., p. 182, at the end of Case 71.
[5] While studying what Germans call the _Casuistik_ of this question in
medical, forensic, and anthropological works, we often meet with cases
where inverted sexuality exhibits extraordinary symptoms of apparent
craziness--strange partialities for particular kinds of dress,
occupations in the beloved object, nastinesses, and so forth. But it
must be remarked first that the same symptoms are exhibited by sexually
normal natures (Krafft-Ebing, Observations 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and the cases recorded in footnote to page 90);
and, secondly, that if they should appear to be more frequent in the
abnormal, this can in a great measure be ascribed to the fact that these
latter cases only come under the observation of medical men and judges
when the patients have already for many years been suffering from all
the pangs of a coerced and defrauded instinct. There is nothing in the
copious history of Greece and Rome upon this subject to lead us to
suppose that in a society which tolerated sexual inversion, its subjects
were more conspicuous for filthy and degrading or insane proclivities
than ordinary men and women were. Those who can bring themselves to
enquire into such matters may convince themselves by reading Forberg's
annotations to "Hermaphroditus," Rosenbaum's "Lustseuche," the
pseudo-Meursius, and the pornographical dialogues of Aretino. It will
appear conclusively that both in ancient and in modern times the normal
sexual instinct has been subject to the wildest freaks and aberrations;
not in actually diseased persons, but simply in lustful wantons and the
epicures of new sensations. The curious things we know about
flagellation and cruelty in connection with the ordinary appetite should
also be remembered. As a final note on this topic, I will refer to a
passage quoted by Tarnowsky from a work of Taxil, describing a
peculiarly repulsive class of fashionable libertines in Paris called
"les stercoraires" (_op. cit._, p. 70). Compare what Mantegazza reports
of a "gentile ufficiale francese" (Gli amore degli uomini, vol. i. p.
117).
[6] See upon this point Tardieu, "Attentats aux Moeurs," Rosenbaum, "Die
Lustseuche."
[7] Ancient literature abounds in prose and poetry which are both of
them concerned with homosexual love. Only a portion of this can be
called pornographic: among the Greeks, the [Greek: Mousa Paidikê], parts
of Lucian, and occasional hints in Athenæus and Aristophanes perhaps
deserve the name; among the Romans, the Priapeia, the Satyricon of
Petronius, some elegies and satires, certainly do so. Italian literature
can show the Rime Burlesche, Beccadelli's Hermaphroditus, the Canti
Carnascialeschi, the maccaronic poems of Fidentius, and the remarkably
outspoken romance entitled "Alcibiade fanciullo a scolla." Balzac has
treated the theme, but with reserve and delicacy. Mirabeau's "Erotika
Biblion" is a kind of classic on the subject. In English literature, if
we except Shakespeare's Sonnets, George Barnfield's Poems, parts of
Marlowe, "Roderick Random," Churchill's Satire "The Times," homosexual
passions have been rarely handled, and none of these works are
pornographic. In Germany, Count von Platen, Heine's victim, was
certainly an Urning; but his homosexual imitations of Persian poetry are
pure, though passionate. I am not acquainted with more than the titles
of some distinctly pornographic German books. The following appears to
be of this sort: "Mannesliebe, oder drei Jahre aus dem Leben eines
jungen Mannes."
[8] Les Deux Prostitutions, par F. Carlier, Ancien Chef du Service actif
des Moeurs à la Préfecture de Police. Paris. Dentu. 1889.
[9] Paris, Brossier, 1889.
[10] In the recently published military novel "Sous Offs." (by Lucien
Descaves, Paris, Tresse et Stock, 1890) some details are given regarding
establishments of this nature. See pp. 322, 412, 417, for a description
of the drinking-shop called "Aux Amis de l'Armée," where a few maids
were kept for show, and also of its frequenters, including in particular
the adjutant Laprévotte (cp. 44).
[11] On the morals of the Foreign Legions, see Ulrichs, Ara Spei, p. 20;
Memnon, p. 27. Also General Brossier's report, quoted by Burton, Arabian
Nights, vol. x. p. 251
[12] P. 459.
[13] Tardieu, _op. cit._, pp. 213-255.
[14] In dealing with Tardieu, Casper-Liman, and Tarnowsky, I have
directed the reader to passages in the works of the three medical
authorities who have spoken most decidedly upon this topic. After
comparing their evidence, the case seems to me to stand thus. Both male
and female prostitutes are exposed to considerable risks of physical
deformation in the exercise of their illicit trade. But males and
females, if they keep their vicious propensities within the bounds of
temperance, offer no physical deformations to observation. Only those
men who for years have practised promiscuous prostitution earn epithets
like the Greek slang [Greek: euryprôktos], or the Italian _culo rotto_.
[15] Casper-Liman, _op. cit._, vol. i. p. 164.
[16] Casper-Liman, _op. cit._, vol. i. pp. 174-181.
[17] _Op. cit._, vol. i. pp. 164-166.
[18] Having criticised Tardieu for his use of the phrase _pæderast_,
Casper and Liman can find no better.
[19] Westphal: Die Conträre Sexualempfindung. Archiv für Psychatrie,
vol. ii. I.
[20] The Standard of Sanity, Br. Med. Journal, Nov. 28, 1885.
[21] See Tarnowsky about the opinion of the lower classes in St.
Petersburg, _op. cit._, p. 99. "Ueberhaupt verhalten sich die gemeinen
ungebildeten Leute, dem Ausspruch aller mir bekannten Päderasten gemäss,
äusserat nachsichtig gegen unzüchtige Anträge--'herrschaft-liche
Spielerei,' wie sie es nennen." This is true not only of Russia, but of
countries where we should least expect to find the compliance in
question.
[22] P. 73. The italics are the translator's. The adjective
_homosexual_, though ill-compounded of a Greek and a Latin word, is
useful, and has been adopted by medical writers on this topic.
_Unisexual_ would perhaps be better.
[23] A note upon this subject has to be written; and it may be
introduced here as well as elsewhere. Balzac, in _Une dernière
incarnation de Vautrin_, describes the morals of the French _bagnes_.
Dostoieffsky, in _Prison Life in Siberia_, touches on the same topic.
See his portrait of Sirotkin, p. 52, _et seq._, p. 120 (edn. J. & R.
Maxwell, London). We may compare Carlier, _op. cit._, pp. 300, 301, for
an account of the violence of homosexual passions in French prisons. The
initiated are familiar with the facts in English prisons. There is a
military prison on the Lido at Venice, where incorrigible lovers of
their own sex, amongst other culprits, are confined. A man here said:
"All our loves in this place are breech-loaders." Bouchard, in his
_Confessions_ (Paris, Liseux, 1881), describes the convict station at
Marseilles in 1630. The men used to be allowed to bring women on board
the galleys. At that epoch they "les besognoient avant tout le monde,
les couchant sous le banc sur leur 'capot. Mais depuis quelques années
en ca, le general a defendu entrée aux femmes. De sorte qu'il ne se
pêche plus maintenant là-dedans qu'en sodomie, mollesse, irrumation, et
autres pareilles tendresses" (p. 151). The same Frenchman, speaking of
the Duc d'Orléans' pages at Paris, says that this was a "cour extrèmemen
impie et débauchée, surtout pour les garçons, M. d'Orléans deffendoit à
ses pages de se besogner ni branler la pique; leur donnant au reste
congé de voir les femmes tant qu'ils voudroient, et quelquefois venant
de nuict heurter à la porte de leur chambre, avec cinq ou six garses,
qu'il enfermoit avec eux une heure à deux" (p. 88). 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. As regards military service, the facts related by Ulrichs
about the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, on the testimony of a
credible witness, who had been a pathic in his regiment, deserve
attention (_Ara Spei_, p. 20; _Memnon_, p. 27). This man, who was a
German, told Ulrichs that the Spanish, French, and Italian soldiers were
the lovers, the Swiss and German their beloved. See General Brossier,
cited above, p. 19. Ulrichs reports that in the Austrian army lectures
on homosexual vices are regularly given to cadets and conscripts
(_Memnon_, p. 20).
[24] See above, p. 33, my criticism of Moreau upon this point, with
special reference to Greece.
[25] Prometheus, pp. 20-26, _et seq._
[26] Without having recourse to Ulrichs, it may be demonstrated from
Krafft-Ebing's own cases of genuine Urnings that early onanism is by no
means more frequent among them than among normal males. Five marked
specimens showed no inclination for self-abuse. The first (p. 128) says:
"As I never masturbated and felt no inclination for it, I sometimes had
a nocturnal pollution." The second (p. 155): "You will be surprised to
hear that before my twenty-eighth year I never had any ejaculation of
semen, either by nocturnal emissions, or by masturbation, or by contact
with a man." The third (p. 172): "Onanism is a miserable makeshift, and
pernicious, whereas homosexual love elevates the moral and strengthens
the physical nature." The fourth (p. 163): "I had an internal horror of
onanism, although from the very first appearance of puberty I was
sensually very excitable and troubled with persistent erections." The
fifth (p. 142) is not so clear; but it is obvious from his remarks that
the first ejaculation of semen which happened to him did so at the sight
of a handsome soldier: "feeling my parts moistened, I was horribly
frightened and thought it was a hæmorrhage." Some of the cases do not
mention the subject at all. A good many seem to have begun to masturbate
early; but the proportion is not excessive to the whole number. One
Urning explains the _faute de mieux_ system (p. 115): "If we have no
friend, whose sexual company has become needful to the preservation of
our health, and if we abandon ourselves at last to masturbation alone
with our imagination, then indeed do we become ill." Another speaks as
follows (p. 151): "Homosexual indulgence with a man gave me enjoyment
and a consequent feeling of well-being, whereas onanism _faute de mieux_
produced an opposite result."
[27] P. 82. Herodotus called it "the female disease."
[28] P. 86, _et seq._
[29] P. 88, _et seq._
[30] Henceforward we may use the word Urning without apology; for
however the jurists and men of science repudiate Ulrichs' doctrine, they
have adopted his designation for a puzzling and still unclassified
member of the human race. A Dr. Kaserer, of Vienna, is said to have
invented the term Urning.
[31] This is a hit at Westphal, Krafft-Ebing's predecessor, who laid
down the doctrine that Urnings are conscious of their own morbidity. Of
course, both authorities are equally right. Approach an Urning with
terrors of social opinion and law; and he will confess his dreadful
apprehensions. Approach him from the point of view of science; and he
will declare that, within four closed walls, he has no thought of guilt.
[32] Pp. 97-106.
[33] The physical repugnance of true Urnings for women may be
illustrated by passages from three of Krafft-Ebing's cases (pp. 117,
123, 163), which I will translate. (1) "I had observed that a girl was
madly in love with me, and longed intensely to yield herself up to me. I
gave her an assignation in my house, hoping that I should succeed better
with a girl who sought me out of love than I had with public women.
After her first fiery caresses, I did indeed feel a little less frigid;
but when it came to thinking about copulation, all was over--the same
stark frost set in, and my part was played out. I sent her away, deeply
excited, with some moral remarks; and I have never tried the like
experiments again. On all these occasions _the specific odour of the
female added to my horror_." (2) "The proximity of wenches aroused in me
qualms and nausea; _in particular I could not bear to smell them_." (3)
"It seems to me absurd to set up the female form as the prototype of
human beauty. I regard a woman's person as displeasing, the formation of
her hips as ugly and unæsthetic. Dancing is therefore an abomination to
me. _I loathe the odour which the so-called fair sex exhales when heated
by the dance._" The disgust inspired in these three Urnings by the smell
of the female is highly significant; since we know that the sense of
smell acts powerfully upon the sexual appetite of normal individuals. It
may be remarked that in all the instances of pronounced Urnings, sexual
congress with women seems to have been followed with disgust, nervous
exhaustion, and the sense of an unnatural act performed without
pleasure. This is true even of those who have brought themselves to
marriage.
[34] A sign, by the way, which may be observed in the most masculine of
athletes. This is very noticeable in the nude photographs of Sandow.
[35] Englishmen know the type as Mariannes, and had occasion to study
their habits in the Boulton and Park trial. For the type in Paris,
consult Carlier, _op. cit._, pp. 323-326, 339-351, 463.
[36] I have used the German version of Lombroso's work, because of the
translator's preface and occasional annotations.
[37] See Dufour, "Histoire de la Prostitution," vol. iii. (France, ch.
i.) p. 193.
[38] See Dufour, "Histoire de la Prostitution," (France, chs. 6 and 7).
[39] See above, p. 35, for an ingenious definition by Dr. Huggard, which
covers both classes as born criminals and moral madmen.
[40] His German translator calls attention to this omission; p. 153
footnote.
[41] Third edition. Halle a. S., 1882.
[42] Psych. Sex., p. 82.
[43] Leipzig, Wigand, 1860.
[44] Arabian Nights, 1885, vol. x., pp. 205-254.
[45] Burton's acquaintance with what he called "le Vice" was principally
confined to Oriental nations. He started on his enquiries, imbued with
vulgar errors; and he never weighed the psychical theories examined by
me in the foregoing section of this Essay. Nevertheless, he was led to
surmise a crasis of the two sexes in persons subject to sexual
inversion. Thus he came to speak of "the third sex." During
conversations I had with him less than three months before his death, he
told me that he had begun a general history of "le Vice"; and at my
suggestion he studied Ulrichs and Krafft-Ebing. It is to be lamented
that life failed before he could apply his virile and candid criticism
to those theories, and compare them with the facts and observations he
had independently collected.
[46] I give the author's own text, p. 206.
[47] P. 208.
[48] P. 251.
[49] P. 222.
[50] Pp. 204, 209.
[51] Gli amori degli Uomini, Milano, 1886, vol. i. cap. 5.
[52] _Ibid._, p. 149.
[53] Pp. 148-154.
[54] P. 154.
[55] See above, p. 55, note.
[56] The notion that human beings were originally hermaphrodite is both
ancient and wide-spread. We find it in the Book of Genesis, unless,
indeed, there be a confusion here between two separate theories of
creation. God is said to have first made man in his own image, male and
female in one body, and to have bidden them multiply. Later on he
created the woman out of part of the primitive man. The myth related by
Aristophanes in Plato's _Symposium_ has a curious bearing upon Ulrichs'
speculations. There were originally human beings of three sexes: men,
the children of the sun; women, the children of the earth; and
hermaphrodites, the children of the moon. They were round, with two
faces, four hands, four feet and two sets of reproductive organs apiece.
In the case of the third sex, one set was male, the other female. Zeus,
on account of their strength and insolence, sliced them into halves.
Since that time the halves of each sort have always striven to unite
with their corresponding halves, and have found some satisfaction in
carnal congress--males with males, females with females, and males and
females with each other: "They who are a section of the male follow the
male, and while they are young, being slices of the original man, they
hang about men and embrace them, and they are themselves the best of
boys and youths, because they have the most manly nature. And when they
reach manhood, they are lovers of youth, and are not naturally inclined
to marry or beget children, which they do, if at all, only in obedience
to the law, but they are satisfied if they may be allowed to live with
one another unwedded; and such a nature is prone to love and ready to
return love, always embracing that which is akin to him." (Symp. 191-2,
Jowett's translation.) Then follows a glowing description of Greek Love,
the whole reminding us very closely of the confessions made by Urnings
in modern times, and preserved by medical or forensic writers on sexual
inversion.
[57] Memnon, section xix.
[58] See above, p. 36, the suggestion quoted from Dr. Huggard of "a
congenital lack of balance between structures themselves healthy." It
might be queried whether this "imperfect sexual differentiation," or
this "congenital lack of balance between structures themselves healthy,"
is not the result of an evolutionary process arriving through heredity
and casual selection at an abnormal, but not of necessity a morbid,
phenomenon in certain individuals.
[59] The first two from Casper-Liman, Handbuch der gerichtlichen
Medicin, vol. i. pp. 166-169. The others from Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia
Sexualis.