Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/316

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PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS.


by the public, and would prefer to sing as a passive heroine, or in the dramatic rôle of a woman.

“The most interesting subject of conversation for me, and those like me, is, however, always—men; for us this is inexhaustible. Their secret charms are described in the most minute details, mentulæ æstimantur, quanta sint magnitudine, quanta, crassitudine; de forma earum atque rigiditate conferimus, alter ab altero cognoscit cujus semen celerius, cujus tardius ejaculetur. I may add that, of my four brothers, one gave himself to the service of urnings, without himself being one; and all four are ladies’ men, and indulge in sexual excesses. The genitals of the men of our family are, without exception, unusually developed.

“In conclusion, I repeat the words with which I began these lines. I could not choose my expressions, because my object in the foregoing has been to afford material for the study of the urning’s existence, and absolute truth was essential. I beg the numerous cynics to keep this circumstance in mind.”

In October, 1890, the writer of the foregoing lines presented himself to me. In all essentials his appearance corresponded with his description. Genitals large, with abundant growth of hair. His parents had been well nervously. One brother had shot himself on account of nervous trouble; three others were intensely nervous. The patient came to me in a state of despair. He could not endure such a life any longer; for he had been admonished about intercourse with men that could be bought; and with his extreme sensual nature he was unable to abstain. Too, he could not understand how he could be made to love women, and enjoy the nobler joys of life. He had had love for men since his thirteenth year.

He felt in all respects like a woman, and longed to be won by men that were not urnings. When he was with an urning, it was just as if two girls were together. He would prefer being sexless to living longer as he was. Would not castration help him?

An attempt at hypnosis with the highly excited patient induced only a very slight degree of lethargy.

Case 124. B., waiter, aged 42, single, was sent to me by his physician, with whom he was in love, as one who was suffering from contrary sexual feeling. B. very willingly, and in a decent manner, gave a history of his past life, especially of his sexual life, and was glad at least to have an authoritative opinion concerning his sexual condition, which had always appeared to him abnormal.

B. knew nothing to report of his grandparents. His father had been a passionate, excitable man, a drinker, and always very sensual. After he had begotten twenty-four children by one wife, he was divorced from her; and after that his landlady became three times pregnant by him. His mother was healthy.

Of the twenty-three children, but six were living; several were