58 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



tence or aversion has a psychical origin) heterosexual or homo- 

 sexual acts do not determine heterosexuality: many persons 

 from conscience, from circumstances, from vanity, from weak- 

 ness, etc., give themselves up to or engage in acts which do 

 not correspond to their true sexuality, their ordinary or normal 

 sexuality. We ought not then to judge of the whole of a man's 

 sexual life by his isolated acts. Marriage, mistresses, and la 

 bo7ine fortune will now no longer be sufficient to restore the 

 homosexual ; they will scarcely avert suspicion. It is the same 

 with paternity. 



Love of beauty acts homosexually only upon the uranist 

 or the libertine or the rare visionary who is not enough of an 

 artist to respect beauty. I think we can separate love from 

 beauty. The uranists who should represent themselves as car- 

 ried away by the love of beauty would be rather blasphemers 

 or sophists. Beauty, so far as it is supreme beauty hardly car- 

 ries with it any sexual excitement. It is, then, not beauty 

 which excites them. It is more correct to say that certain uran- 

 ists justify themselves after the mischief is done in their own 

 eyes by the superiority of the lines of the masculine body over 

 those of the feminine. The artistic or trained heterosexuals have 

 no idea of this and they none the less remain heterosexual. If 

 perfect and abstract beauty did excuse this madness of the senses, 

 I should think that art would be sick indeed. Beauty inspires 

 a certain respect in souls well-born. If love of beauty leads to 

 inversion, it leads quite as much to heterosexuality, or rather it 

 makes no difference which sexuality makes beauty one its at- 

 tractions. 



Hereditary weaknesses lead wretched men to all kinds of 

 baseness, all vices and all bad practices. How many hunch- 

 backed, lean and sickly men adore large handsome women ? 



The fear of disease alas ! only rarely restrains men ; the 

 circumstances must be very peculiar for a young man to allow 

 himself to be controlled by this dread. I should rather think 

 that in many cases this is an excuse, especially as some terrible 

 diseases may be transmitted by homosexuals ; cancer of the 

 throat and palate, for example, cannot be rare among them. 



