36 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



might be at length refined to such a degree as to be unrecog- 

 nizable and as for the inversion produced by isolation, it would 

 disappear with this isolation, or if it persisted, it would remain 

 absolutely sexual. It is with the congenital invert that the in- 

 version is most often absolutely sexual. The born invert is ac- 

 customed to his character, his inversion is not acquired from 

 vice or weakness or vanity or the love of gain or imitation or 

 cowardice or fear or from the desire to win over some one who 

 is necessary or useful, which are all causes of perversion. 



The physicians who try to cure inverts have not sufficiently 

 noted the dangers to which they expose their patients. They 

 may transform their invert into a pervert. I do not think much 

 of permanent cures of the sexual sense. Every imperfect cure 

 may make of an invert a pervert ; and if the invert is danger- 

 ous and contagious, the pervert is much more so. He has 

 more points of contact with the normal young man ; he startles 

 him less, he takes less complete, though easier, possession of 

 him than does the invert. The men who have seduced, cor- 

 rupted and defiled the souls and lives of their younger compan- 

 ions are usually perverts. They have not always been unisex- 

 ual. They have more power. They are more vicious. The 

 unisexual who attempts bisexuality is as corrupt as the normal 

 sexual man who attempts unisexuality ; they have all vices, 

 both those natural to them and others. Let the medical healer 

 remember this before undertaking a congenital invert. Rather 

 than to add the vices of the normal man to the abnormality 

 which he has, the superior invert (it is he alone who would have 

 a strong desire to change his condition ; the inferior inverts find 

 adequate satisfaction all too easily) should try — under proper di- 

 rection — to lift himself above himself and his vice. The tenden- 

 cies of our time, particularly the prevalent contempt for reli- 

 gion, make chastity more difficult for every one, and the invert 

 suffers more from this than others. Instead of debasing the 

 honorable invert by making him run after prostitutes and subse- 

 quently to become the unfortunate husband of a less fortunate 

 wife and the father of children who will suffer as much as he or 

 more, the attempt should be made to occupy and interest him 



