Case 188. X., peasant, aged 40; Greek-Catholic. Father and mother were hard drinkers. Since his fifth year patient has had epileptic convulsions,—i.e., he falls down unconscious, lies still two or three minutes, and then gets up and runs wildly about with staring eyes. Sexuality was first manifested at seventeen. The patient had inclinations neither for women nor for men, but for animals (birds, horses, etc.). He had intercourse with hens and ducks, and later with horses and cows. Never any onanism.
The patient paints pictures of saints; is of very limited intelligence. For years, religious paranoia, with states of ecstasy. He has an “unspeakable” love for the Virgin, for whom he would sacrifice his life. Taken to hospital, he proves to be free from infirmity and signs of degeneration.
He had always had an aversion for women. In a single attempt at coitus with a woman he was impotent, but with animals he was always potent. He is ashamed before women; coitus with women he regards almost as a sin. (Kowalewsky, Jahrb. f. Psychiatrie, vii, Heft 3.)
Case 189. On the afternoon of September 23, 1889, W., aged 16, shoemaker’s apprentice, caught a goose in a neighbor’s garden, and committed bestiality on the fowl until the neighbor approached. On being accused by the neighbor, W. said, “Is there anything wrong with the goose?” and then went away. At his examination he confessed the act, but excused himself on the ground of temporary loss of mind. Since a severe illness, in his twelfth year, he several times a month had attacks, with heat in his head, in which he was intensely excited sexually, could not help himself, and did not know what he did. He had done the act in such an attack. He answered for himself in the same way at the trial, and stated that he knew nothing of the species facti except from the statements of the neighbor. His father states that W., who comes of a healthy family, has always been sickly since an attack of scarlatina in his fifth year, and that, at the age of twelve, he had a febrile cerebral disease. W. had a good reputation, learned well in school, and, later, helped his father in his work. He was not given to masturbation.
The medical examination revealed no intellectual or moral defect. The physical examination revealed normal genitals; penis relatively greatly developed; marked exaggeration of the patellar reflexes. In other respects, negative result.
The history of the condition at the time of the deed was not to be depended upon. There was no history of previous attacks of mental disturbance, and there were none during the six weeks of observation. There was no perversion of the vita sexualis. The medical opinion allowed the possibility that some organic cause (cerebral congestion), dependent upon cerebral disease, may have exercised an influence at the time of the commission of the criminal act. (From the opinion of Dr. Fritsch, of Vienna.)
Case 190. Impulsive Sodomy.—A., aged 16; gardener’s boy; born out of wedlock; father, unknown; mother, deeply tainted, hystero-epileptic. A. has a deformed, asymmetrical cranium, and deformity and asymmetry of the bones of the face; the whole skeleton is also deformed, asymmetrical, and small. From childhood he was a masturbator; always morose, apathetic, and fond of solitude; very irritable, and pathological in his emotional reaction. He is imbecile, probably much reduced physically by masturbation, and neurasthenic. Besides, he presents hysteropathic symptoms (limitation of the visual field, dyschromatopsia; diminution of the senses of smell, taste, and hearing on the right side; anæsthesia of the right testicle, clavus, etc.).
A. is convicted of having committed masturbation and sodomy on dogs and rabbits. When twelve years old he saw how boys masturbated a dog. He imitated it, and thereafter he could not keep from abusing dogs, cats, and rabbits in this vile manner. Much more frequently, however, he committed sodomy on female rabbits,—the only animal that had a charm for him. At dusk he was accustomed to repair to his master’s rabbit-pen, in order to gratify his vile desire. Rabbits with torn rectums were repeatedly found. The act of bestiality was always done in the same manner. There were actual attacks which came on every eight weeks, always in the evening, and always in the same way. A. would become very uncomfortable, and have a feeling as if some one were pounding his head. He felt as if losing his reason. He struggled against the imperative idea of committing sodomy with the rabbits, and thus had an increasing feeling of fear and intensification of headache, until it became unbearable. At the height of the attack there was sound of bells, cold perspiration, trembling of the knees, and, finally, loss of resistive power, and impulsive performance of the perverse act. As soon as this was done, he lost all anxiety; the nervous cycle was completed, and he was again master of himself, deeply ashamed of the deed, and fearful of the return of an attack. A. states that, in such a condition, if called upon to choose between a woman and a female rabbit, he could make choice only of the latter. In the intervals, of all domestic animals, he is partial only to rabbits. In his exceptional states simple caressing or kissing, etc., of the rabbit suffices, as a rule, to afford him sexual satisfaction; but sometimes he has, when doing this, such furor sexualis that he is forced to wildly perform sodomy on the animal.
The acts of bestiality mentioned are the only acts which afford him sexual satisfaction, and they constitute the only manner in which he is capable of sexual indulgence. A. states that, in the act, he never had a lustful feeling, but satisfaction, inasmuch as he was thus freed from the painful condition into which he was brought by the imperative impulse.
The medical evidence easily proved that this human monster was a psychically degenerate, irresponsible invalid, and not a criminal. (Boeteau, La France médicale, 38th year, No. 38.)