In a case which Maschka reports (“Handb.,” iii, p. 174), a young man had naked girls, from eight to twelve years old, dance about in his room, and urinate before him, until he ejaculated. Not infrequently boys are abused by sensual women, who undertake to bring about conjunctio membrorum with them, in order to satisfy themselves by means of friction or onanism.[[138]]
Tardieu saw one of the most disgusting examples. A servant, in company with her lover, masturbated children intrusted to them, performed cunnilingus with a girl of seven, and introduced parsnips and potatoes into her vagina, and put similar things into the rectum of a baby of two years!
Case 185. Z., aged 62; deeply tainted, masturbator. He states he has never had coitus, but has frequently practiced fellatio. He is in an asylum, on account of paranoia. It had been his greatest pleasure to entice girls, aged from ten to fourteen years, and practice cunnilingus and other vile acts with them. In these acts he had orgasm and ejaculation. Masturbation did not give him the same satisfaction, and induced ejaculation only with difficulty. Faute de mieux he also practiced fellatio with men; occasionally an exhibitionist. Phimosis; asymmetrical cranium. (Pelanda, Arch. di Psichiatria, x. fascic. 3, 4.)
Case 186. X., priest, aged 40. He was accused of enticing girls, aged from ten to thirteen, undressing and fondling them lustfully, and finally masturbating. He is tainted, and has been an onanist from childhood; morally imbecile; always very excitable sexually. Head somewhat small. Penis unusually large; indications of hypospadiasis. (Pelanda, loc. cit.)
Case 187. K., aged 23; laborer. He was accused and convicted of repeatedly enticing boys, and now and then girls, to an out-of-the-way place, and practicing abuses with them (mutual masturbation, fellatio puerorum, fondling of the genitals of the girls).
K. is an imbecile, and physically deformed, being scarcely 1.5 metres tall; cranium rachitic and hydrocephalic; teeth bad,—furrowed, defective, and irregular. Large lips, idiotic expression, stuttering speech, and an awkward attitude complete the picture of psycho-physical degeneration. K. behaves like a child discovered in some mischievous act. Scarcely any growth of beard. Genitals well and normally developed. He has a superficial consciousness of having done something improper, but he is unconscious of the moral, social, and legal significance of his crimes.
K. comes of a drunken father, and a mother who became insane from the abuse of her husband, and died in an asylum. In his babyhood the boy was almost blinded by corneal ulcers, and, after his sixth year, he grew up with an almoner, and later with difficulty earned his living as an organ-grinder. His brother is good for nothing, and the culprit himself was considered a surly, quarrelsome, evil, moody, irritable man. The opinion emphasized the intellectual, moral, and physical defect of the culprit.
Unfortunately it must be admitted that the most revolting of these crimes are done by sane individuals who, by reason of satiety in normal sexual indulgence, lasciviousness, and brutality, and not seldom during intoxication, forget that they are human beings.
A great number of these cases, however, certainly depend upon pathological states. This is particularly true where old men become the seducers of children.[[139]]
I agree with Kirn, who, under all circumstances, in cases of this kind, holds a mental examination to be always necessary; since, frequently enough, a re-awakened, perverse, abnormally intense, and uncontrollable sexual desire is shown to be one of the manifestations of a senile dementia.