G. acknowledges that he is sensual. At the age of twelve he had been made acquainted with sexual matters by school-mates. He had never masturbated, had first had coitus at the age of eighteen, and had since visited brothels frequently. He had never felt any inclination for his own sex, and had never experienced any sexual excitement when S. kissed him. He had always had pleasure in coitus normally performed. His lascivious dreams had always been of women. With indignation, and pointing to his descent from a healthy and respectable family, he repels the insinuation of having been given to passive pederasty. Until the gossip about them came to his ears, he had been innocent and devoid of suspicion. The anal anomalies he tries to explain in the same way that he did at the trial. Auto-masturbation in ano he denies.
It should be noted that Mr. J. S. claims to be no less astonished by the charge against his brother of male-love than those more closely associated with him. Yet he could not understand what attached his brother to G.; and all the explanations which S. made to him concerning his relation to G. were vain.
The author took the trouble to observe Dr. S. and G., in a natural way, while they were dining, in company with S.’s brother and Mrs. S., in Graz. This observation revealed not the slightest sign of improper friendship.
The general impression which Dr. S. made on me was that of a nervous, sanguine, somewhat overstrained individual, but, at the same time, kind, open-hearted, and very emotional.
Dr. S. is physically strong, somewhat corpulent, with a symmetrical, brachycephalic cranium. The genitals are well developed; the penis somewhat bellied; the prepuce somewhat hypertrophied.
Opinion.—Pederasty is, unfortunately, not infrequent among mankind to-day; but still, occurring among the peoples of Europe, it is an unusual, perverse, and even monstrous manner of sexual gratification. It presumes a congenital or acquired perversion of the sexual instinct, and, at the same time, defect of moral sense that is either original or acquired, as a result of pathological influences.
Medico-legal science is thoroughly conversant with the physical and psychical conditions from which this aberration of the sexual instinct arises; and in the concrete and doubtful case it seems requisite to ascertain whether these empirical, subjective conditions necessary for pederasty are present. Too, it is essential to distinguish between active and passive pederasty.
Active pederasty occurs:—
I. As a non-pathological phenomenon:—
1. As a means of sexual gratification, in case of great sexual desire, with enforced abstinence from natural sexual intercourse.