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work as men; one of these came to Vitry to work as a weaver, and was
looked upon as a well-conditioned young man, and liked by everyone. At
Vitry she became betrothed to a woman, but, a quarrel arising, no marriage
took place. Afterward "she fell in love with a woman whom she married, and
with whom she lived for four or five months, to the wife's great
contentment, it is said; but, having been recognized by some one from
Chaumont, and brought to justice, she was condemned to be hanged. She said
she would even prefer this to living again as a girl, and was hanged for
using illicit inventions to supply the defects of her sex" (_Journal_, ed.
by d'Ancona, 1889, p. 11).
[178] Roux, _Bulletin Société d'Anthropologie_, 1905, No. 3. Roux knew a
Comarian woman who, at the age of 50, after her husband's death, became
homosexual and made herself an artificial penis which she used with
younger women.
[179] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, p. 47.
[180] There are few traces of feminine homosexuality in English social
history of the past. In Charles the Second's Court, the _Mémoires de
Ghrammont_ tell us, Miss Hobart was credited with Lesbian tendencies.
"Soon the rumor, true or false, of this singularity spread through the
court. They were gross enough there never to have heard of that refinement
of ancient Greece in the tastes of tenderness, and the idea came into
their heads that the illustrious Hobart, who seemed so affectionate to
pretty women, must be different from what she appeared." This passage is
interesting because it shows us how rare was the exception. A century
later, however, homosexuality among English women seems to have been
regarded by the French as common, and Bacchaumont, on January 1, 1773,
when recording that Mlle. Heinel of the Opera was settling in England,
added: "Her taste for women will there find attractive satisfaction, for
though Paris furnishes many tribades it is said that London is herein
superior."
[181] "I believe," writes a well-informed American correspondent, "that
sexual inversion is increasing among Americans--both men and women--and
the obvious reasons are: first, the growing independence of the women,
their lessening need for marriage; secondly, the nervous strain that
business competition has brought upon the whole nation. In a word, the
rapidly increasing masculinity in women and the unhealthy nervous systems
of the men offer the ideal factors for the production of sexual inversion
in their children."
[182] Homosexual women, like homosexual men, now insert advertisements in
the newspapers, seeking a "friend." Näcke ("Zeitungsannoncen von
weiblichen Homosexuellen," _Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie_, 1902, p.
225) brought together from Munich newspapers a collection of such
advertisements, most of which were fairly unambiguous: "Actress with
modern ideas desires to know rich lady with similar views, for the sake of
friendly relations, etc.;" "Young lady of 19, a pretty blonde, seeks
another like herself for walks, theatre, etc.," and so on.
CHAPTER V.
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Analysis of Histories--Race--Heredity--General Health--First Appearance of
Homosexual Impulse--Sexual Precocity and Hyperesthesia--Suggestion and
Other Exciting Causes of Inversion--Masturbation--Attitude Toward
Women--Erotic Dreams--Methods of Sexual Relationship--Pseudo-sexual
Attraction--Physical Sexual Abnormalities--Artistic and Other
Aptitudes--Moral Attitude of the Invert.
Before stating briefly my own conclusions as to the nature of sexual
inversion, I propose to analyze the facts brought out in the histories
which I have been able to study.[183]
RACE.--All my cases, 80 in number, are British and American, 20 living in
the United States and the rest being British. Ancestry, from the point of
view of race, was not made a matter of special investigation. It appears,
however, that at least 44 are English or mainly English; at least 10 are
Scotch or of Scotch extraction; 2 are Irish and 4 others largely Irish; 4
have German fathers or mothers; another is of German descent on both
sides, while 2 others are of remote German extraction; 2 are partly, and 1
entirely, French; 2 have a Portuguese strain, and at least 2 are more or
less Jewish. Except the apparently frequent presence of the German
element, there is nothing remarkable in this ancestry.
HEREDITY.--It is always difficult to deal securely with the significance
of heredity, or even to establish a definite basis of facts. I have by no
means escaped this difficulty, for in some cases I have not even had an
opportunity of cross-examining the subjects whose histories I have
obtained. Still, the facts, so far as they emerge, have some interest. I
possess some record of heredity in 62 of my cases. Of these, not less than
24, or in the proportion of nearly 39 per cent., assert that they have
reason to believe that other cases of inversion have occurred in their
families, and, while in some it is only a strong suspicion, in others
there is no doubt whatever. In one case there is reason to suspect
inversion on both sides. Usually the inverted relatives have been
brothers, sisters, cousins, or uncles. In one case a bisexual son seems to
have had a bisexual father.
This hereditary character of inversion (which was denied by
Näcke) is a fact of great significance, and, as it occurs in
cases with which I am well acquainted, I can have no doubt
concerning the existence of the tendency. The influence of
suggestion may often be entirely excluded, especially when the
persons are of different sex. Both Krafft-Ebing and Moll noted a
similar tendency. Von Römer states that in one-third of his cases [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]