Chapter I on blastophthoria. The recent researches of Bezzola seem to

prove that the old belief in the bad quality of children conceived during drunkenness is not without foundation. Relying on the Swiss census of 1900, in which there figure nine thousand idiots, and after careful examination of the bulletins concerning them, this author has proved that there are two acute annual maximum periods for the conception of idiots (calculated from nine months before birth): the periods of carnival and vintage, when the people drink most. In the wine-growing districts the maximum conception of idiots at the time of vintage is enormous, while it is almost _nil_ at other periods. Moreover, these two maximum periods come at the time of year when conception is at a minimum among the rest of the population; the maximum of normal conceptions occurring at the beginning of summer. If these facts are confirmed by further research, we may conclude that even acute alcoholism has a blastophthoric action. We may, therefore, assume that when a germinal cell leaves its gland at the moment when it is impregnated with alcohol, and achieves conjugation, it is unable to return to its normal condition, for want of opportunity to be completely and promptly cleansed by nutrition and the circulation. This explains how it may transmit to the individual which develops from it all kinds of taints and defects. After what we have said, we can tabulate the destructive effects of the narcotic poisons and alcohol in particular, in the sexual domain, both from the individual and social points of view, as follows: (1). Irreflective sexual unions, resulting from exaltation of the sexual appetite and temporary paralysis of the sentiments which inhibit such unions in persons who are not under the influence of alcohol. These include the seduction of girls, orgies with prostitutes in brothels, and the procreation of children with low-class women, or under unfavorable conditions. (2). Increase of venereal disease. I have made statistics which show that about 75 per cent. of venereal disease is contracted by men under the influence of alcohol, chiefly by persons who are slightly intoxicated and rendered enterprising thereby. (3). All kinds of misfortunes and catastrophes, such as illegitimate pregnancies, despair, suicide, etc., resulting from irreflective sexual unions and venereal disease. (4). The production of the majority of sexual crimes also resulting from the exasperation of eroticism combined with irreflection and general motor impulsiveness. Jealousy here plays a great part. The most important statistics (for example, those of Baer, in Germany), prove that from 50 to 75 per cent. of criminal assaults are committed under the influence of alcohol. Indecent exposure, etc., is due to alcohol in 75 or 80 per cent. (5). Exaltation and sometimes development of sexual perversion. (6). Creation of hereditary alcoholic blastophthoria, either as the result of a single drinking bout, or from habitual drunkenness. The offspring tainted with alcoholic blastophthoria suffer from various bodily and physical anomalies, among which are dwarfism, rickets, a predisposition to tuberculosis and epilepsy, moral idiocy and idiocy in general, a disposition to crime and mental diseases, sexual perversions, loss of suckling in women, and many other misfortunes. (7). The delirium of jealousy is a specific symptom of chronic alcoholism. Its effects are terrible and lead to all kinds of sorts of infamies, assaults and even assassination. (8). Alcohol is also the almost indispensable vehicle of prostitution and proxenetism, which could not be maintained without it, at any rate in their present disgusting and brutal form. (9). The coarseness and vulgarity of alcoholic eroticism produce in public places, as well as in private, an importunate and obscene form of flirtation, which is brutally and cynically opposed to all sentiments of propriety and modesty. The above statements refer chiefly to men. Among women, alcoholism is less common, at least in continental Europe; in England, however, drunken women are often seen in the streets. Among prostitutes, however, alcoholism is almost universal. Proxenetism makes use of alcohol to compromise and seduce girls and thus lead them to prostitution. When they have once fallen they often drink to forget the horror of their situation. The action of alcohol on the feminine sexual appetite is very peculiar. The appetite is generally exalted, while the power is not affected, owing to the passive role of woman in coitus. At first, paralysis of the psychic inhibitions and their higher irradiations (love, duty, modesty, etc.) by alcohol deprives the woman of nearly all power of resistance against the sexual desire of the man. It results from this that an intoxicated woman becomes the easy prey of a man whose sexual appetite is excited. The following case is instructive from this point of view: A young girl of good position married a man of weak and vulgar character. Both were rather fond of drink. When she became pregnant the wife took large quantities of wine, by the doctor's orders, and this led her to inebriety. The friends and acquaintances of the husband found this amusing, and began to flirt with her to such an extent that she fell a victim to their sexual appetites, in her continual state of semi-intoxication. The husband at first had not the courage to put an end to this and did not wish to divorce her, for pecuniary reasons; for the wife had the money. He finally decided to send her to an asylum which I superintended, to cure her alcoholism. From the antecedents of the patient, I expected to see a cynical and erotic woman; but she was nothing of the kind. Although hardly sober, this woman was modest and well-behaved. What struck me most was her extreme of modesty, which at first made it difficult for me to investigate her psychological state. Her conduct was exemplary the whole time, and she eventually confided to me that it was not so much sexual desire as the profound indifference and feebleness developed by inebriety which had caused her to give way. Before leaving the asylum she joined a total abstinence society, returned to her husband and succeeded in converting him also to total abstinence. She kept to her pledge and lived afterwards in conjugal peace and happiness, without ever relapsing into her old infidelity. I saw her several years afterwards with her husband, happy and flourishing. I have mentioned this case to show that, even in women, sexual excess does not necessarily destroy the character, the sentiments of modesty, nor the will. It all depends on their cause. If there is congenital weakness of character, the evil is irreparable; but if it is only due to external forces which can be eliminated in time, its effect may often be permanently suppressed. Some female inebriates are sexually cold and repulse men; but others are erotic and even nymphomaniacs. Whosoever has the welfare of humanity at heart, and takes the trouble to reflect on the ravages caused by alcohol in human society, should have the courage to make a slight effort and renounce all alcoholic drink--say for six months at first, as an experiment--in order to combat the social alcoholic misery by force of example, instead of empty phrases. He will then discover, like all abstainers, that the usage of alcohol (including wine, cider and beer) however small the quantity consumed, only serves to maintain a habit which is vicious and disastrous to society, by giving the contagious example of so-called moderation, to which a great number of persons cannot restrict themselves. He will then abstain for the rest of his days, and it will become more and more incomprehensible to him how humanity has been led, first by the spirit of imitation, later by the conservation of prejudices, to develop, maintain and defend such a social abuse by the aid of a legion of sophisms. SEXUAL ANOMALIES AND PERVERSIONS BY SUGGESTION AND AUTO-SUGGESTION The role of the phenomena of suggestion in sexual life is much greater than is generally supposed. I shall return to this subject in a special chapter, but I may state here that there is a category of sexual perversions and anomalies of all kinds which are not hereditary but acquired, and which Krafft-Ebing, although he cites striking examples, wrongly attributes to the effect of sexual excess and depravity, or which he compares to ordinary psychopathia, while in reality they are only the direct effect of strong suggestion or auto-suggestion. I place in this category the cases where a man, whose sexuality has hitherto been normal, suddenly becomes pathological as the result of some circumstance which produces on him a profound impression. For instance, the sexual appetite of an individual may be strongly excited, in a brothel or elsewhere, by an erotic woman whose feet or shoes are especially elegant. The sight of this well-fitted foot exalts his sexual desire to a high degree. From this moment feminine shoes, by subjective association, exercise on him an irresistible erotic power, which dominates everything else and transforms him into a fetichist; the female body no longer elicits his appetite, the latter having become the slave of the image of shoes only. (Shoe fetichism.) Sexual inversion may also be acquired by suggestion, when a normal man becomes excited by acts of masturbation or pederasty, or simply by some psychic image with a strongly suggestive action. He may thus lose his normal sexual appetite for women and become homosexual. These phenomena occur especially in individuals whose suggestibility is pathological or hysterical, or even simply exaggerated. But these individuals are numerous, and this fact gives us the explanation of a large proportion of acquired sexual anomalies, at the same time indicating the means of curing them. In such cases, it is not a question of moral depravity, nor necessarily of a latent hereditary predisposition, but simply of a single sudden suggestive action, sometimes repeated. Among other cases, I may mention that of a well-educated man of very refined sentiments, deeply in love with his wife, but very suggestible, who became suddenly impotent and homosexual as the result of a simple idea-image which became fixed in his mind and subjected it by suggestion. His strong character enabled him to resist intercourse with males, but he fell into despair and became very unhappy. I am convinced that a careful study would reveal an increasing number of cases of psychopathia acquired by suggestion or auto-suggestion. Cases of this kind may be spontaneously cured. Treatment by suggestion is indicated and may act directly or indirectly. Everything which is of a functional psychic nature may occur by suggestion, or be, on the contrary, eradicated by suggestion. The important point is to emphasize the fact that whenever a man, hitherto normal, is affected, without apparent cause, with a more or less sudden sexual anomaly, and which is consequently not the effect of long habit, suggestion or auto-suggestion should be borne in mind. These two conceptions can, moreover, be hardly distinguished, for the things which cause suggestion are usually the sensory perceptions of sight, smell, touch and hearing, associated with certain situations, or with an intense affective state which fixes them in the brain. Sometimes it is a question of simple imaginative ideas. The cases where a hypnotizer intentionally suggests sexual perversion probably exist only in theory. We are, therefore, concerned with fortuitous suggestions, acting through persons, situations, objects or ideas, which excite the mind by the impression they produce on the sentiments and the sexual appetite. SEXUAL PERVERSIONS DUE TO HABIT Without being congenital and without depending on a special predisposition, all the perversions of the sexual appetite that we have just described may be acquired, by means of the artificial and continued excitation of a sexual appetite which seeks satisfaction in change and unusual situations: Moreover, perverse satisfaction of the sexual appetite is often resorted to--onanism, pederasty or oral coitus--either to avoid conception, or with the idea of escaping venereal disease, or in the case of onanism, to avoid publicity, trouble or expense. As we have seen above alcohol favors the development of sexual perversions. It is evident that a commerce in women systematically tolerated by the state, as is the proxenetism of regulated prostitution, employs all means imaginable to attract and excite its clients. In this way prostitution becomes the high-school for all the refinements of sexual perversion. It not only offers special objects required by individuals tainted by heredity with various perversions, but it artificially develops perverse habits in the normal man. The manipulations of sadism or masochism are even utilized to revive a sexual appetite weakened by abuse. Individuals who have become impotent often try to excite themselves by observing the coitus of others. In fact a leaven of corruption and ignominy ferments on the dunghill of venal and artificial excitation of the sexual appetite. The apostles of Mammon and Bacchus, the former by interest, the latter by the aid of a narcosis which paralyzes the higher sentiments and reflection, work in concert to maintain this foul swamp. The same individuals very commonly combine the two apostleships and become themselves the victims of their false gods, after sacrificing hundreds of their fellows. To make matters more clear I will recapitulate as follows: (1). _We often meet with pederasty without a trace of inversion of the sexual appetite. It is also practiced on women by the psychopathic male. But the normal man hardly ever prefers it to normal coitus._ (2). _Compensatory masturbation is very common and ceases with the opportunity for normal coitus._ (3). _Sodomy is also often compensatory._ (4). _It is the same with assaults on children, which seldom depend on a hereditary disposition._ (5). _Lesbian love, a form of degeneracy, artificial excitation of the clitoris by the tongue or otherwise, may have quite a different origin than from sexual inversion or other perversions._ All these things take place chiefly in brothels or with prostitutes, in barracks, boarding-schools, convents, and other isolated places where men and women live alone and separated from the other sex. Sadism, masochism, fetichism and exhibitionism are much more rarely the result of habits, because their object and the images with which they are associated do not offer compensation for the normal excitation of the sexual appetite, or only do so insufficiently. I am here obliged to contradict Krafft-Ebing, who regards exhibitionism as the effect of the impotence of certain individuals depraved by excesses, or as the unconscious act of certain epileptics. No doubt the two conditions which he mentions may present themselves, but the exhibitionists I have observed have all been psychopaths whose perversion was primordial and hereditary, with the exception of some females in whom perversion originated in suggestion or alcoholism, which had at any rate aroused the disposition. Lesbian love merits special mention. Owing to the clitoris being more or less concealed, women are often not satisfied by coitus, especially when the ejaculation of the male takes place too quickly. Consequently a number of normal women prefer to procure an orgasm by means of lesbian love (_cunnilingus_.) There are clubs of female perverts, many of whom are not homosexual by heredity. Although they differ from hereditary perversions, acquired perversions are connected with the former by a series of latent hereditary dispositions, more or less marked, and often difficult to distinguish in particular cases, especially when suggestion is blended with them. Among the entirely hereditary and congenital sexual perversions, many occur in individuals who are well conducted and often possessed of delicate and altruistic sentiments. This point is not sufficiently recognized. Such persons are nearly always more or less neurotic in other respects. They are disheartened by their perversion and are so much ashamed of it that they often prefer to carry their secret to the grave rather than confide it to their doctor. Others sometimes confess to a doctor, and the life of a martyr, who is always contemplating suicide, is revealed to him. Individuals of feeble, cynical, egoistic or abnormal natures, whose number is legion in the corrupt centers of modern civilization, yield to their perversion and often come before the tribunals, or else become objects of public contempt. As it is this class which generally become known, it is assumed by too hasty generalization that sexual perverts are necessarily cynical, vicious or weak-minded individuals; but this induction is false. It is unfortunately impossible to estimate the number of sexual perversions dissimulated by a large number of pessimists of both sexes, generally celibate and usually males. I do not pretend that, when sexual perversion is neither hereditary nor favored by a latent hereditary predisposition, nor developed or fixed by alcoholism, it is usually possible to cure it by suggestion. This often acts even in cases where alcohol has aroused a hereditary taint. The incorrigible recidivists among the sexual perverts are, I am convinced, either hereditary or strongly predisposed, or degenerated by alcoholism. The original will power of the pervert is also of great importance. Weak-willed perverts always tend to relapse. The social sanitation of sexual intercourse would certainly reduce to a minimum the compensatory perversions of normal persons who abstain from alcohol. The prohibition of alcoholic drink would definitely eliminate not only the perversions directly due to alcohol, but gradually also those due to alcoholic blastophthoria in the descendants. Other hereditary perversions, not of alcoholic origin, can only be definitely eliminated by healthy selection. Perversions acquired by suggestion or auto-suggestion should be combated by suppression of the depraved examples which cause them, as well as by treatment by suggestion. It is needless to say that sexual perverts should always abstain from alcoholic drinks. FOOTNOTES: [4] English translation by F.J. Rebman: Rebman Co., New York. [5] For further information on this subject see _Marshall's_ "Syphilology and Venereal Disease," (London, Balliere, Tindall & Co.); also _Marshall's_ translation of _Fournier's_ "Treatment and Prophylaxis of Syphilis," (New York: Rebman Co.) [6] _Krafft-Ebing_ describes bestiality (connection with animals) and pederasty under the general term of sodomy, but points out that the original meaning of sodomy used in Genesis (Chapter XIX) signified pederasty, _i.e._, anal coitus between men.