One of these cases has been reported by Wise. The woman, fifty-six years of age, was always peculiar in girlhood. She preferred masculine sports and labors. She had an aversion to attentions from young men and sought the society of her own sex. She consented to marry when twenty years of age, and had one child. When she was deserted by her husband, she began to follow her predilection for masculine avocations. She donned male attire and became a trapper and hunter. She considered herself a man in all that the name applies. After many reverses she entered an almshouse and here she became attached to a young woman. When the attachment became mutual, both left the institution for the woods to commence life instar mariti maritæque. They lived in this relation until the patient had a maniacal attack that resulted in her committal to an asylum.
Another case of viraginity has been reported by Kiernan. The patient, a girl of twenty-two years of age, when a child, liked boys' games and was fond of male attire. She felt an attachment to some of her female friends and satisfied voluptatem faciendo stupra mutua cum amicis. The powerful impulse for sexual gratification came over her at regular periods. She became intensely excited at the sight muliebrium. In her lascivious dreams she saw only female pictures. She also suffered from imperative conceptions.
In Westphal’s case, the patient, thirty-five years of age, was as a child fond of boys’ games and was anxious to wear male attire. From her eighth year she felt herself drawn to certain girls. She kissed and hugged them and sometimes induced them permittere ut muliebria contrectaret. Between her eighteenth and twenty-fifth year she had frequent chances contrectandi muliebria. When such chances were wanting, she satisfied herself stupro manu. Stuprabat sese especially just before and after menstruation. When she attempted to control herself she experienced a disagreeable odor and taste, arising from muliebria sua.
The cases mentioned by Ellis also belong to this degree of female homosexuality.
Catherine Tucker nupta erat mulieri et eam comprimebat ope fascini factitii.
In Memphis, Alice Mitchells planned marriage with Freda Ward. When the scheme was frustrated by Freda’s sister, Alice killed Freda by cutting her throat.
In Chicago one of the Tiller sisters was an invert and lived stupre attached to the other. One day the healthy sister was induced to leave the invert and got married. The deserted sister then broke into the apartment of the couple and shot the husband.
Another case is that of a trained nurse in Chicago who lived stupre with a young girl of fourteen years. The latter left her four times, but was always induced to return again. One day, the girl married, whereupon the nurse shot the husband.
Effemination and viraginity with bodily perversion.—In the fourth degree of homosexuality not only are the mental characteristics peculiarly feminine, respectively masculine, but the form of the body approaches that of women, respectively of men. Only the genitals are differentiated and are completely male or female; otherwise the patient could be considered a woman, respectively a man. The following case of a male patient will illustrate this degree of the anomaly.
A man of forty had always had homosexual impulses, as far back as he can remember. His stuprosæ acts were attached by mental images of men. The autoerotic fantasies are all of men. In his erotic dreams the images of men accompany the orgasm. The patient feels himself entirely like a woman and is attracted by physically well built men. Naked men in life or in sculpture have a great attraction for him. Women have never made the slightest impression on him. The mere sight of a naked woman disgusts him. Initus with women always failed for lack of erection, while homosexual acts afford complete satisfaction.
The patient has a disinclination to masculine pursuits. He does not drink nor smoke. His habitus is entirely feminine. The body is slight and non-muscular. The shoulders are narrow, the pelvis broad, the hands and feet decidedly small. The form is rounded with an abundant development of adipose tissue. He has few hairs on beard and mustache. His complexion is fine. His voice is feminine, he speaks in falsetto voice. His gait is rocking, womanly. He wears his hair quite long.
Since childhood he was actuated by the desire to put on female attire. He always wore female undergarments, such as shirts, drawers, corsets, etc. He generally wears bracelets on his arms. Whenever he can, he dresses up like a woman and takes long walks upon the streets in such costumes. Through his love for feminine attire he came in contact with several transvestites who form a kind of club in this city. But the latter who abhor homosexual practices soon discovered his motive for the desire of feminine attire and avoided his company. In his reveries, dreams and acts the patient always plays the pathicus. For some reason or other, unknown to the author, the patient committed suicide.
The female, suffering from the fourth degree of viraginity with bodily perversion, approaches in the form of her body that of men. For this reason she may easily masquerade as a man, associate with men, go through the marriage ceremony with a homosexual woman of the class suffering from the first three degrees of homosexuality, and she will never be found out until she dies. A few cases of this class were described by Krafft-Ebing.
The patient is a talented artist, twenty-five years of age. She has masculine features, a deep voice, a manly gait and small mammae. Early in her youth she preferred to play with boys. She never had a liking for dolls or needlework and found no pleasure in domestic duties. At fifteen years of age she began to menstruate. At the same time she began to fall in love with young girls. Her love was only platonic in nature. She is perfectly indifferent toward men. She is bashful only toward persons of her own sex. In her lascivious dreams females are on the scene where she herself plays the man’s rôle.
In another case of the same author, the patient, when a girl, had inclination for boys’ sports only. Once, when she was allowed to go to a theatrical performance, dressed as a boy, she was filled with bliss. Until her marriage, at the age of twenty-one, she was indifferent to men and women alike. She began to menstruate at the age of eighteen. Her engagement was a matter of utter indifference to her. Her connubial duties were first painful and, later on, loathsome to her. She never experienced sensual pleasure, yet she became the mother of six children. Her husband began at that time to practise onanism (coitus interruptus). At the age of thirty-six she had an apoplectic stroke. From this time on she felt that a great change has taken place in her. She was mortified at being a woman. Her menstruation ceased. Her feminine features assumed a masculine expression. Her breasts disappeared. The pelvis became smaller and narrower, the bones more massive, the skin rougher and harder. Her voice grew deeper and quite masculine. Her feminine gait disappeared. She could not wear a veil. Even the odor emanating from her person changed. She could no longer act the part of a woman, and assumed more and more the character of a man. She complained of having strange feelings in her abdomen. She could no longer feel her muliebria. The vaginal orifice seemed to close and the region of her genitals seemed to be enlarged. She had the sensation of possessing a penis and a scrotum. At the same time she began to show symptoms of the male voluptas.
In another case of Krafft-Ebing the patient, thirty-six years of age, commenced se stuprare manu at the time of puberty, when thirteen years old, and became homosexual when sixteen years of age. When twenty-six years old she had the feeling of transformation. She imagined muliebria sua turning into the male form and began to urinate like a man. She does not feel ashamed to undress in the presence of a man, but is shy to do it in the presence of a woman.
One of the best examples of the fourth degree of homosexuality is that of Murray Hall, who died in New York City in 1901. Her real name was Mary Anderson. Born in Scotland, she came to America, where she lived as a man for thirty years. Her features and her behavior were so entirely masculine in character that through all these years her real sex was not even suspected by her closest friends. She became distinguished as a Tammany politician and as a man about town who knew how to make money. She associated with politicians, drank to excess, swore a great deal, smoked and chewed tobacco. She was fond of pretty girls and liked to associate with them. She entered twice into matrimonial relations with other inverted women. Her first marriage ended into separation; the second lasted twenty years and was happy until the so-called “wife” died. The secret that “Mr.” Hall was really a woman was not discovered till after her death.
A similar case is that of De Raylan, who was assistant to the Russian consul in Chicago for twelve years. When he died in December, 1906, it was found that the assistant was a woman. She smoked constantly and was possessed of a discriminating taste for liquors with ability to withstand the effects of drink better than most men. She was married with the present “Mrs. De Raylan” for the last twelve years after having been married once before and divorced.
Transvestism.—The psycho-sexual anomaly of transvestism consists in the desire for cross-dressing. The male patient has the abnormal desire to dress like a woman, and the female patient longs to dress like a man. It is in this respect akin to the anomaly of homosexuality. In the degrees of effemination and viraginity, cross-dressing is a prominent symptom. The homosexual pathicus has naturally the impulsive desire to dress like a woman, and vice versa, the Lesbian woman longs to dress like a man.
Still, cross-dressing is a pathological entity by itself. Homosexuality is a morbid sex state of gross somatic experiences. It emanates from the crude, powerful sensation of sex. The individual’s longings extend to somatic sensations. These desires often rapidly reach an obsessional state. Transvestism, on the other hand, is a sexo-esthetic inversion of pure artistic imitation. Hence it occurs mostly in artists and in men of letters, i. e., in persons endowed with a highly developed artistic taste. Such persons are, as a rule, disgusted at the sight of the organs of the sex to which the individual by anatomical configuration belongs, while such sights offer to the homosexual individual additional charm and piquancy.
Transvestism tends to accent the esthetic sensibility. The patient’s experience of an increased comfort and well-being by the gratification of the pronounced impulse of cross-dressing, is more akin to the satisfaction of the artist, experienced by the successful expression of a certain symbolism. Transvestism is more in harmony with the basal esthetic demands. The patient harbors exalted ideas and is striving to secure artistic enjoyment in the appreciation of the beautiful. The attraction is in the mind and has nothing to do with the sex-organs. Hence transvestism seldom celebrates orgies of lascivious and voluptuous practices, as often found in homosexuality. If sensuous caressing does take place, it is with a person of the other sex. For the physical part of the sex activity is perfectly normal.