[448] His descriptions of impulsive criminals are not really exact. The laity have greatly admired his description of the assassin Lantier in La Bête humaine. The most competent judge in such matters, however, Lombroso, says of this character, which has been inspired in M. Zola, according to his own declaration, by L’Uomo delinquente: ‘M. Zola, in my opinion, has never observed criminals in real life.... His criminal characters give me the impression of the wanness and inaccuracy of certain photographs which reproduce portraits, not from Nature, but from pictures.’—Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale. Con 3 tavole e 52 figure nel testo. Torino, 1893, p. 356.
[449] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, etc., 3e Auflage; Stuttgart, 1888. Beobachtung 23, Zippes Fall, s. 55; Beobachtung 24, Passow’s Fall, s. 56; Aum. zu s. 57, Lombroso’s Fall.
Cæsare Lombroso, Le piu recenti scoperte, etc., p. 227: ‘He always had voluptuous sensations on seeing animals killed, or in perceiving in shops feminine under-garments and linen.’ The case of which Lombroso here speaks is that of a degenerate of fifteen years old, who had been observed by Dr. MacDonald, of Clark University.
[450] Léon Tolstoi, [Œuvres complètes, p. 385: ‘He smelt the warmth of her body, inhaled the odour of her perfumes ... and at this moment Pierre understood that not only might Hélène become his wife, but that she must become so—that nothing else was possible.’] It is related that the King of France, Henri III., married Marie of Cleves because, at the wedding of the King of Navarre and his sister, Marguerite of Valois, wishing to dry his face in the chemise wet with the perspiration of the young princess, he was so intoxicated by the scent which emanated from it, that he had no rest till he had won her who had borne it. See Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, p. 17.
[451] Léon Tolstoi, [Œuvres complètes, t. ii., p. 385: ‘With him there had come into the room a strong, but not disagreeable, smell,’ etc.]
[452] Maurice Barrès, L’Ennemi des Lois, p. 47.
[453] Edmond de Goncourt, La Faustin. Paris, 1882, p. 267.
[454] Alfred Binet, Le Fétichisme dans l’Amour, etc., p. 26. This passage will make the German reader think of the sniffer of souls, G. Jaeger; I have no occasion to mention him here.
[455] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathie Sexualis, p. 15, foot-note, p. 17.
[456] E. Séguin, Traitement morale, Hygiène et Education des Idiots. Paris, 1846.