magis æstimatur” (Zittmann). Oecsterlen (Maschka, Handb., iii, p. 18) mentions the case of a man aged 83, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a Wurtemberg court on account of sexual misdemeanors. Unfortunately nothing is said of the nature of the crime or of the mental condition of the criminal.[1]
The manifestation of sexual instinct in old age is not in itself pathological; but presumption of pathological conditions must necessarily be entertained when the individual is decrepit and his sexual life has already long become extinct; and when the impulse, in a man whose sexual needs were in his early life, perhaps, not very marked, manifests itself with greater strength, and strives for even perverse satisfaction in a shameless and impulsive manner. In such cases there is at once suggested a presumption of pathological conditions. Medical science recognizes the fact that such an impulse depends upon the morbid alterations of the brain which lead to senile dementia. This abnormal manifestation of sexual life may be the precursor of senile dementia, and make its appearance even long before there are any well-defined manifestations of intellectual weakness. The attentive and experienced observer will always be able to detect in this prodromal stage an alteration of character in pejus, and a deterioration of the moral sense accompanying the peculiar sexual manifestation.
The libido of those passing into senile dementia is at first expressed in lascivious speech and gesture. The next objects of the attempts of these senile subjects of brain atrophy and psychical degeneration are children. This sad and dangerous fact is explained by the better opportunity they have of falling in with children, but more especially by a feeling of imperfect sexual power. Defective sexual power and greatly diminished moral sense explain the additional fact of the perversity of the
- ↑ The translator has lately seen a case of this kind that illustrates the lack of care taken by our criminal courts. A very infirm man, aged 55 to 60, under favoring circumstances, made an unsuccessful sexual assault on a girl aged about 18. At his trial he made full confession, and explained his act as due to ordinary sinfulness. He was the father of a family and living with his wife, and up to that time blameless sexually. He was sentenced to five years of hard labor! He was incapable of almost the lightest work. Conversation with him while in jail showed at once that he was well advanced in senile dementia. Legal question concerning his mental condition was not raised,—because he confessed, probably!
