How the fear of infection by the impure female may be the cause of the transfer of his affections to individuals of the same sex shows the following case:
A young man of twenty-two years of age, strong and healthy, qui magnum mulierum numerum habebat at his disposal and never showed any homosexual tendencies, one day contracted a very bad infection of gonorrhoea, which after a few days became complicated by orchitis and epididymitis and which took eighteen months to be cured. Since then he is afraid to go near a woman. It did not take very long before he made the acquaintance of a homosexual pathicus with whom he is now living in a bachelor apartment. He assured the author that, he will never touch a woman again, except he should get married to a healthy, respectable girl.
Female homosexuality is not seldom caused by the fact that the young girl does not need to fear the opposition of her guardians when choosing a female friend. The companionship of a female friend does not arouse the suspicion of the natural guardians, and the girl is watched less by them. They would never allow their ward to sleep in one room with a man alone, but they suspect nothing if she sleeps in the same bed with a female friend. Thus indulgence with female friends do not offer so many obstacles and entail no consequences. Many a girl is hence induced to transfer her attentions to friends of her own sex.
Homosexuality out of lust.—Another cause for homosexual practices among men and women is lust and lechery. There are individuals whose only aim in life is the satisfaction of their sexual desires. All their activities aim at this end. They sacrifice everything to this instinct. After they have tasted all the varieties congressus normalis, sexual activity with the other sex becomes stale, and satiety ensues. They then feel the need for stronger excitements and stimulations of the diseased nerves and resort to paederastia and lesbianism. The following case will best illustrate this point:
A man thirty years of age, healthy and strong, began se stuprare manu when fifteen years of age but soon gave up the practice on account of the following incident: The beautiful servant girl in the family one evening surprised him in his practices. “Ita concitata est aspectu actionis venereæ, ut se jaceret ad grabatum et incitavit puerum, ut coitum cum ea efficeret. Qua ex die puerum noctu in lectum secum quotidie deduxit, et ambo indulserunt excessibus sexualibus exquisitimis, e. g., fellatio, cunnilingus, mamillae suctus, coitus per anum, etc.” After a number of years the girl left the house, and he began to associate with venal women and continued the same practices with the learned priestesses of Venus. By the time he was thirty years old he had tasted all the salacious practices these women are able to teach. Thereupon he turned to homosexuality in the houses for that purpose. There he plays, as a rule, the active part.
The overstimulated women who indulge in homosexuality are chiefly found among the venal class. It is known that lesbianism is very prevalent among the meretrices of Paris. In the relation of the prostitute with men, there is no scope for the exercise of feminine affections and devotions. Hence they resort for that to their female friends. This reason, given by Chevalier, for the prevalence of homosexuality among fornicatrices may hold good in some instances, but in the majority of cases the choice of a female friend for the indulgence of sexual pleasures is actuated by lust and entirely devoid of sentiment. Overstimulation has simply destroyed natural gratification, and artificial pleasures are sought. The following case of Rosse is the best proof of this assertion:
In Rosse’s case a young, unmarried woman conceptavit a sorore nupta, quæ commisit simulacrum concarnationis cum ea statim post congressionem cum marito.
Overstimulation and lust are also the causes of the homosexual love affairs observed among women of high society. Friendships between prominent ladies and obscure chorus or dancing girls, or between the prominent female painter and her female model are always suspicious.
Homosexuality as a profession.—The lecherous men and the exclusive ladies often resort to fornices to gratify their diseased desires. In this way they create a certain demand for paederasts and lesbians that has to be supplied. The last part of the army of homosexual individuals is hence recruited from those who practise homosexuality as a profession and for lucre. There is not a large city of any importance that does not harbor such houses filled with males, kept there to satisfy the demand of homosexual men. One-fourth of all the fornicatrices of Paris serve as tribadists for the rich women who patronize fornices.
A man, thirty-two years of age, was treated by the author for gonorrhoea. One day, when wishing to examine the prostate, the author noticed the gaping nature of the anus. The diameter of the opening was about half an inch. Asked about the cause of this opening, the patient confessed that he had just come from a hotel where he served as a pathicus for a wealthy patron and that he makes his living by going from one hotel to another and offering himself as pathicus to homosexual men, who are loathe to visit fornices, populated by males for these purposes.
Rosse relates the case of a meretrix who, from curiosity, visited several women who make a specialty of the vice. By way of experiment, she submitted herself to the lingual and oral manoeuvres of the performance and had such a violent hystero-cataleptic attack that she was a long time in recovering from the same.