From this standpoint, heredity may furnish a favorable soil—for almost anything. The crop that is harvested depends upon the seeds that are sown, and the care that is given, or the injuries that are sustained, through environment. Consider for a moment how fertile a breeding ground for the homosexual disposition is the homelife presided over by certain types of nervous and psychopathic parents!
Even more in error is Krafft-Ebing in associating homosexuality with the early habit of masturbation. This is largely confusion of cause and effect. Perhaps all homosexuals are found to have masturbated in childhood—ergo, masturbation is a sign of homosexuality! This explanation, of course, leaves entirely out of consideration the innumerable persons who have masturbated in childhood and have become normal heterosexual adults.
"Nothing is more likely," states Krafft-Ebing, "than masturbation so to disturb and occasionally thwart all noble emotions at the source as they arise spontaneously out of the sexual feeling. The habit robs the nascent feeling of charm and beauty, leaving behind only the husk of grossly animal craving for sexual gratification. An individual, so thwarted, attains the age of maturity lacking the esthetic, ideal, pure and undefiled longing which leads to the other sex. At the same time, the heat of sensuous passion cools off while the inclination toward the other sex is significantly weakened. Thus, deficiency embraces the morals, the ethics, the phantasy and the disposition of the youthful masturbator as well as his emotional
