"There still lingers, however, a minor interest, which began

before puberty, in valentines. My feeling for them is much like
my feeling for flowers.

"Before I reached puberty I was sometimes called a 'sissy' by my
father. Such taunts humiliated me more than anything else has
ever done. After puberty my father no longer applied the term,
and gradually other persons ceased to tease me that way. The
sting of it lasted, though, and led me more than once to ask
intimate friends, both men and women, if they considered me at
all feminine. Every one of them has been very emphatically of the
opinion that my rational life is distinctively masculine, being
logical, impartial, skeptical. One or two have suggested that I
have a finer discrimination than most men, and that I take care
of my rooms somewhat as a woman might, though this does not
extend to the style of decorations. One man said that I lacked
sympathy with certain 'grosser manifestations of masculine
character, such as smoking.' Some women think me unusually
observing of women's dress. My own is by no means effeminate. In
a muscular way I have average strength, but am supple far beyond
what is usual. If trained for it early, I believe I would have
made a good contortionist.

"I have never had the least inclination to use tobacco, generally
take neither tea nor coffee, and seldom any liquor, never malt
liquors. The dessert is always the best part of the meal. These
tastes I attribute largely to my sedentary life. When out camping
I observed a marked change in the direction of heartier food and
mild stimulants.

"My physical courage has never been put to the test, but I
observe that others appear to count on it. I am very aggressive
in matters of religious, political, social opinion. In moral
courage I am either reckless or courageous, I do not know which.

"I am, perhaps, a better whistler than most men.

"When I was quite little my grandmother taught me to do certain
kinds of fancy-work, and I continued to do a little from time to
time until I was 24. Then I became irritated over a piece that
troubled me, put it in the fire, and have not wanted to touch any
since. As a pet economy I continue to do nearly all of my own
mending.

"I have a decided aversion for much jewelry. My estheticism is
very pronounced as compared with most of the men with whom I
associate, although I have never been able to give it much scope.
It makes for cleanliness, order, and general good taste. My dress
is economical and by no means fastidious; yet it seems to be
generally approved. I have been complimented often on my ability
to select appropriate presents, clothing, and to arrange a room."

M.O. states that he practises the love-bite at times, though very
gently. He often wants to pinch one who interests him sexually.

He considers very silly the statement somewhere made, that
inverts are always liars. Very few people, he says, are perfectly
honest, and the more dangerous society makes it for a man to be
so, the less likely he is to be. While he himself has been unable
in two or three instances to keep promises made to withhold from
sexual intercourse with certain attractive individuals, he has
never otherwise been guilty of untruth about his homosexual
relations.

The foregoing narrative was received eight years ago. During this
interval M.O.'s health has very greatly improved. There has been
a marked increase in outdoor activities and interests.

Two years since M.O. consulted a prominent specialist who
performed a thorough psychoanalysis. He informed M.O. that he
was less strongly homosexual than he himself supposed, and
recommended marriage with some young and pretty woman. He
attributed the homosexual bent to M.O.'s having had his "nose
broken" at the age of 6, by the birth of a younger brother, who
from that time on received all the attention and petting. M.O.
had continued up to that age very affectionate toward his mother
and dependent on her. He can remember friends and neighbors
commenting on it. At first M.O. was inclined to reject this
suggestion of the specialist, but on long reflection he inclines
to believe that it was indeed a very important factor, though not
the sole one. From his later observations of children and
comparisons of these with memories of his own childhood, M.O.
says he is sure he was affectionate and demonstrative much beyond
the average. His greatest craving was for affection, and his
greatest grief the fancied belief that no one cared for him. At
10 or 11 he attempted suicide for this reason.

Also as a result of the psychoanalysis, but trying to eliminate
the influence of suggestion, he recollects and emphasizes more
the attraction he felt toward girls before the age of 12. Had his
sexual experiences subsequently proved normal, he doubts if those
before 12 could be held to give evidence of homosexuality, but
only of precocious nervous and sexual irritability, greatly
heightened and directed by the secret practices of the children
with whom he associated. He does not see why these experiences
should have given him a homosexual bent any more than a
heterosexual one.

The psychoanalysis recalled to M.O. that during the period of
early flirtation he had often kissed and embraced various girls,
but likewise he recalled having observed at the same time, with
some surprise, that no definitely sexual desire arose, though the
way was probably open to gratify it. Such interest as did exist
ceased wholly or almost so as the relation with Edmund developed.
There was no aversion from the company of girls and women,
however; the intellectual friendships were mainly with them,
while the emotional ones were with boys.

Very recently M.O. spent several days with Edmund, who has been
married for several years. With absolutely no sexual interest in
each other, they nevertheless found a great bond of love still
subsisting. Neither regrets anything of the past, but feels that
the final outcome of their earlier relation has been good.
Edmund's beauty is still pronounced, and is remarked by others.

In spite of his precocious sexuality, M.O. had from the very
first an extreme disgust for obscene stories, and for any
association of sexual things with filthy words and anecdotes.
Owing in part to this and in part to his temperamental
skepticism, he disbelieved what associates told him regarding
sexual emissions, only becoming convinced when he actually
experienced them; and the facts of reproduction he denied
indignantly until he read them in a medical work. Until he was
well over 25 the physical aversion from any thought of
reproduction was intense. He knows other, normal, young men who
have felt the same way, but he believes it would be prevented or
overcome by sex-education such as is now being introduced in
American schools.

Again, as to traces of feminism: Perhaps two years ago, all
impulse to give the love-bite disappeared suddenly. There has
been lately a marked increase of dramatic interest, arising in
perfectly natural ways, and without any of the peculiarities
noted before. The childish pleasure in valentines has all gone;
M.O. believes that _circumstances_ have lately been more
favorable for the development of a more robust estheticism.

For some years he has heard no definite reproach for feminism,
though some persons tell his friends that he is "very peculiar."
He forms many intimate, enduring, non-sexual friendships with
both men and women, and he doubts if the peculiarity noted by
others is due so much to his homosexuality as it is to his
estheticism, skepticism, and the unconventional opinions which he
expresses quite indiscreetly at times. With the improvement in
general health, has come the changes that would be expected in
food and other matters of daily life.

Resuming his narrative at the point where the earlier
communication left it, M.O. says that about a year after that
time, the youth of 17 to whom he had considered himself virtually
engaged withdrew from the agreement so far as it bore on his own
future, but not from the sentimental relation as it existed.
Although separated most of the time by distance, the physical
relation was resumed whenever they met. Subsequently, however,
the young man fell in love with a young woman and became engaged
to her. His physical relation with M.O. then ceased, but the
friendship otherwise continues strong.

Shortly after the first break in this relation, M.O. became,
through the force of quite unusual circumstances, very friendly
and intimate with a young woman of considerable charm. He
confided to her his abnormality, and was not repulsed. To others
their relation probably appeared that of lovers, and a painful
situation was created by the slander of a jealous woman. M.O.
felt that in honor he must propose marriage to her. The young
woman was non-committal, but invited M.O. to spend several months
at her home. Shortly after his arrival a sad occurrence in his
own family compelled him to go away, and they did not meet again
for four years. They corresponded, but less and less often. His
relations with boys continued.

Before his final meeting with her he became acquainted with a
woman whom he has since married. The acquaintance began in a
wholly non-sentimental community of interests in certain
practical affairs, and very gradually widened into an
intellectual and sympathetic friendship. M.O. had no secrets from
this woman. After a full and prolonged consideration of all sides
of the matter they married. Since that event he has had no sexual
relations except with his wife. With her they are not passionate,
but they are animated by the strong desire for children. Of the
parental instinct he had become aware several years before this.

M.O. believes that no moral stigma should be attached to
homosexuality until it can be proved to result from the vicious
life of a free moral agent,--and of this he has no expectation.
He believes that much of its danger and unhappiness would be
prevented by a thorough yet discreet sex-education, such as
should be given to all children, whether normal or abnormal.


FOOTNOTES:

[124] Thus Godard described the little boys in Cairo as amusing themselves
indifferently either with boys or girls in sexual play. (_Egypte et
Palestine_, 1867, p. 105.) The same thing may be observed in England and
elsewhere.

[125] Thus, of the Duc d'Orleans, in the seventeenth century, as described
in Bouchard's _Confessions_, one of my correspondents writes: "This prince
was of the same mind as Campanella, who, in the _Citta del Sole_, laid it
down that young men ought to be freely admitted to women for the avoidance
of sexual aberrations. Aretino and Berni enable us to comprehend the
sexual immorality of males congregated together in the courts of Roman
prelates." The homosexuality of youth was also well recognized among the
Romans, but they adopted the contrary course and provided means to gratify
it, as the existence of the _concubinus_, referred to by Catullus, clearly
shows.

[126] "Our Public Schools: their Methods and Morals." _New Review_, July,
1893.

[127] Max Dessoir, "Zuer Psychologie der Vita Sexualis," _Allgemeine
Zeitschrift fuer Psychiatrie_, 1894, H. 5.

[128] F.H.A. Marshall, _The Physiology of Reproduction_, 1910, pp. 650-8.

[129] Iwan Bloch, in _The Sexual Life of Our Time_, makes this distinction
as between "homosexuality" (corresponding to inversion) and
"pseudo-homosexuality." According to the terminology I have accepted, the
term "pseudo-homosexuality" would be unnecessary and incorrect. More
recently (_Die Prostitution_, Bd. i, 1912, p. 103) Bloch has preferred, in
place of pseudo-homosexuality, the more satisfactory term, "secondary
homosexuality."

[130] See, for instance, Hirschfeld's reasonable discussion of the matter,
_Die Homosexualitaet_, ch. xvii.

[131] Alfred Fuchs, who edited Krafft-Ebing's _Psychopathia Sexualis_
after the latter's death, distinguishes between congenital homosexuality,
manifesting itself from the first without external stimulation, and
homosexuality on a basis of inborn disposition needing special external
influences to arouse it (_Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iv,
1902, p. 181).

[132] Krafft-Ebing, "Ueber tardive Homosexualitaet," _Jahrbuch fuer
sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iii, 1901, p. 7; Naecke, "Probleme auf
den Gebiete der Homosexualitaet," _Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer
Psychiatrie_, 1902, p. 805; ib., "Ueber tardive Homosexualitaet,"
_Sexual-Probleme_, September, 1911. Numa Praetorius (_Jahrbuch fuer
sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, January, 1913, p. 228) considers that
retarded cases should not be regarded as bisexual, but as genuine
inverts who had acquired a pseudoheterosexuality which at last falls
away; at the most, he believes such cases merely represent a
prolongation of the youthful undifferentiated period.

[133] Moll, _Untersuchungen ueber die Libido Sexualis_, 1897, pp, 458-8.

[134] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, ch. viii.

[135] This was the term used in the earlier editions of the present
_Study_. I willingly reject it in favor of the simpler and fairly clear
term now more generally employed. It is true that by bisexuality it is
possible to understand not only the double direction of the sexual
instinct, but also the presence of both sexes in the same individual,
which in French is more accurately distinguished as "bisexuation."

[136] J. Van Biervliet, "L'Homme Droit et l'Homme Gauche," _Revue
Philosophique_, October, 1901. It is here shown that in the constitution
of their nervous system the ambidextrous are demonstrably left-sided
persons; their optic, acoustic, olfactory, and muscular sensitivity is
preponderant on the left side.




CHAPTER IV.

SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.

Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in Schools,
etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of Inverted
Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among Women.


Homosexuality is not less common in women than in men. In the seriocomic
theory of sex set forth by Aristophanes in Plato's _Symposium_, males and
females are placed on a footing of complete equality, and, however
fantastic, the theory suffices to indicate that to the Greek mind, so
familiar with homosexuality, its manifestations seemed just as likely to
occur in women as in men. That is undoubtedly the case. Like other
anomalies, indeed, in its more pronounced forms it may be less frequently
met with in women; in its less pronounced forms, almost certainly, it is
more frequently found. A Catholic confessor, a friend tells me, informed
him that for one man who acknowledges homosexual practices there are three
women. For the most part feminine homosexuality runs everywhere a parallel
course to masculine homosexuality and is found under the same conditions.
It is as common in girls as in boys; it has been found, under certain
conditions, to abound among women in colleges and convents and prisons, as
well as under the ordinary conditions of society. Perhaps the earliest
case of homosexuality recorded in detail occurred in a woman,[137] and it
was with the investigation of such a case in a woman that Westphal may be
said to have inaugurated the scientific study of inversion.

Moreover, inversion is as likely to be accompanied by high intellectual
ability in a woman as in a man. The importance of a clear conception of
inversion is indeed in some respects, under present social conditions,
really even greater in the case of women than of men. For if, as has
sometimes been said of our civilization, "this is a man's world," the
large proportion of able women inverts, whose masculine qualities render
it comparatively easy for them to adopt masculine avocations, becomes a
highly significant fact.[138]

It has been noted of distinguished women in all ages and in all fields of
activity that they have frequently displayed some masculine traits.[139]
Even "the first great woman in history," as she has been called by a
historian of Egypt, Queen Hatschepsu, was clearly of markedly virile
temperament, and always had herself represented on her monuments in
masculine costume, and even with a false beard.[140] Other famous queens
have on more or less satisfactory grounds been suspected of a homosexual
temperament, such as Catherine II of Russia, who appears to have been
bisexual, and Queen Christina of Sweden, whose very marked masculine
traits and high intelligence seem to have been combined with a definitely
homosexual or bisexual temperament.[141]

Great religious and moral leaders, like Madame Blavatsky and Louise
Michel, have been either homosexual or bisexual or, at least, of
pronounced masculine temperament.[142] Great actresses from the eighteenth
century onward have frequently been more or less correctly identified with
homosexuality, as also many women distinguished in other arts.[143] Above
all, Sappho, the greatest of women poets, the peer of the greatest poets
of the other sex in the supreme power of uniting art and passion, has left
a name which is permanently associated with homosexuality.

It can scarcely be said that opinion is unanimous in regard to
Sappho, and the reliable information about her, outside the
evidence of the fragments of her poems which have reached us, is
scanty. Her fame has always been great; in classic times her name
was coupled with Homer's. But even to antiquity she was somewhat
of an enigma, and many legends grew up around her name, such as
the familiar story that she threw herself into the sea for the
love of Phaon. What remains clear is that she was regarded with
great respect and admiration by her contemporaries, that she was
of aristocratic family, that she was probably married and had a
daughter, that at one time she had to take her part in political
exile, and that she addressed her girl friends in precisely
similar terms to those addressed by Alcaeus to youths. We know
that in antiquity feminine homosexuality was regarded as
especially common in Sparta, Lesbos, and Miletus. Horace, who was
able to read Sappho's complete poems, states that the objects of
her love-plaints were the young girls of Lesbos, while Ovid, who
played so considerable a part in weaving fantastic stories round
Sappho's name, never claimed that they had any basis of truth. It
was inevitable that the early Christians should eagerly attack so
ambiguous a figure, and Tatian (_Oratio ad Graecos_, cap. 52)
reproached the Greeks that they honored statues of the tribade
Sappho, a prostitute who had celebrated her own wantonness and
infatuation. The result is that in modern times there have been
some who placed Sappho's character in a very bad light and others
who have gone to the opposite extreme in an attempt at
"rehabilitation." Thus, W. Mure, in his _History of the Language
and Literature of Ancient Greece_ (1854, vol. iii, pp. 272-326,
496-8), dealing very fully with Sappho, is disposed to accept
many of the worst stories about her, though he has no pronounced
animus, and, as regards female homosexuality, which he considers
to be "far more venial" than male homosexuality, he remarks that
"in modern times it has numbered among its votaries females
distinguished for refinement of manners and elegant
accomplishments." Bascoul, on the other hand, will accept no
statements about Sappho which conflict with modern ideals of
complete respectability, and even seeks to rewrite her most
famous ode in accordance with the colorless literary sense which
he supposes that it originally bore (J.M.F. Bascoul, _La Chaste
Sappho et le Mouvement Feministe a Athenes_, 1911).
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (_Sappho und Simonides_, 1913) also
represents the antiquated view, formerly championed by Welcker,
according to which the attribution of homosexuality is a charge
of "vice," to be repudiated with indignation. Most competent and
reliable authorities today, however, while rejecting the
accretions of legend around Sappho's name and not disputing her
claim to respect, are not disposed to question the personal and
homosexual character of her poems. "All ancient tradition and the
character of her extant fragments," says Prof. J.A. Platt
(_Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th. ed., art. "Sappho"), "show that
her morality was what has ever since been known as 'Lesbian.'"
What exactly that "Lesbian morality" involved, we cannot indeed
exactly ascertain. "It is altogether idle," as A. Croiset remarks
of Sappho (_Histoire de la Litterature Grecque_, vol. ii, ch. v),
"to discuss the exact quality of this friendship or this love, or
to seek to determine with precision the frontiers, which language
itself often seems to seek to confuse, of a friendship more or
less esthetic and sensual, of a love more or less Platonic." (See
also J.M. Edmonds, _Sappho in the Added Light of the New
Fragments_, 1912). Iwan Bloch similarly concludes (_Ursprung der
Syphilis_, vol. ii, 1911, p. 507) that Sappho probably combined,
as modern investigation shows to be easily possible, lofty ideal
feelings with passionate sensuality, exactly as happens in normal
love.

It must also be said that in literature homosexuality in women has
furnished a much more frequent motive to the artist than homosexuality in
men. Among the Greeks, indeed, homosexuality in women seldom receives
literary consecration, and in the revival of the classical spirit at the
Renaissance it was still chiefly in male adolescents, as we see, for
instance, in Marino's _Adone_, that the homosexual ideal found expression.
After that date male inversion was for a long period rarely touched in
literature, save briefly and satirically, while inversion in women
becomes a subject which might be treated in detail and even with
complacence. Many poets and novelists, especially in France, might be
cited in evidence.

Ariosto, it has been pointed out, has described the homosexual
attractions of women. Diderot's famous novel, _La Religieuse_,
which, when first published, was thought to have been actually
written by a nun, deals with the torture to which a nun was put
by the perverse lubricity of her abbess, for whom, it is said,
Diderot found a model in the Abbess of Chelles, a daughter of the
Regent and thus a member of a family which for several
generations showed a marked tendency to inversion. Diderot's
narrative has been described as a faithful description of the
homosexual phenomena liable to occur in convents. Feminine
homosexuality, especially in convents, was often touched on less
seriously in the eighteenth century. Thus we find a homosexual
scene in _Les Plaisirs du Cloitre_, a play written in 1773 (_Le
Theatre d'Amour an XVIIIe Siecle_, 1910.) Balzac, who treated so
many psychological aspects of love in a more or less veiled
manner, has touched on this in _La Fille aux Yeux d'Or_, in a
vague and extravagantly romantic fashion. Gautier made the
adventures of a woman who was predisposed to homosexuality, and
slowly realizes the fact, the central motive of his wonderful
romance, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ (1835). He approached the
subject purely as an artist and poet, but his handling of it
shows remarkable insight. Gautier based his romance to some
extent on the life of Madame Maupin or, as she preferred to call
herself, Mademoiselle Maupin, who was born in 1673 (her father's
name being d'Aubigny), dressed as a man, and became famous as a
teacher of fencing, afterward as an opera singer. She was
apparently of bisexual temperament, and her devotion to women led
her into various adventures. She ultimately entered a convent,
and died, at the age of 34, with a reputation for sanctity. (E.C.
Clayton, _Queens of Song_, vol. i, pp, 52-61; F. Karsch,
"Mademoiselle Maupin," _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_,
vol. v, 1903, pp. 694-706.) A still greater writer, Flaubert, in
_Salammbo_ (1862) made his heroine homosexual. Zola has described
sexual inversion in _Nona_ and elsewhere. Some thirty years ago a
popular novelist, A. Belot, published a novel called
_Mademoiselle Giraud, ma Femme_, which was much read; the
novelist took the attitude of a moralist who is bound to treat
frankly, but with all decorous propriety, a subject of increasing
social gravity. The story is that of a man whose bride will not
allow his approach on account of her own _liaison_ with a female
friend continued after marriage. This book appears to have given
origin to a large number of novels, some of which touched the
question with considerable less affectation of propriety. Among
other novelists who have dealt with the matter may be mentioned
Guy de Maupassant (_La Femme de Paul_), Bourget (_Crime
d'Amour_), Catulle Mendes (_Mephistophela_), and Willy in the
_Claudine_ series.

Among poets who have used the motive of homosexuality in women
with more or less boldness may be found Lamartine (_Regina_),
Swinburne (first series of _Poems and Ballads_), Verlaine
(_Parallelement_), and Pierre Louys (_Chansons de Bilitis_). The
last-named book, a collection of homosexual prose-poems,
attracted considerable attention on publication, as it was an
attempt at mystification, being put forward as a translation of
the poems of a newly discovered Oriental Greek poetess; Bilitis
(more usually Beltis) is the Syrian name for Aphrodite. _Les
Chansons de Bilitis_ are not without charm, but have been
severely dealt with by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (_Sappho und
Simonides_, 1913, p. 63 et seq.) as "a travesty of Hellenism,"
betraying inadequate knowledge of Greek antiquity.

More interesting, as the work of a woman who was not only highly
gifted, but herself of homosexual temperament, are the various
volumes of poems published by "Renee Vivien." This lady, whose
real name was Pauline Tarn, was born in 1877; her father was of
Scotch descent, and her mother an American lady from Honolulu. As
a child she was taken to Paris, and was brought up as a French
girl. She travelled much and at one time took a house at
Mitylene, the chief city of ancient Lesbos. She had a love of
solitude, hated publicity, and was devoted to her women friends,
especially to one whose early death about 1900 was the great
sorrow of Pauline Tarn's life. She is described as very
beautiful, very simple and sweet-natured, and highly accomplished
in many directions. She suffered, however, from nervous
overtension and incurable melancholy. Toward the close of her
life she was converted to Catholicism and died in 1909, at the
age of 32. She is buried in the cemetery at Passy. Her best verse
is by some considered among the finest in the French language.
(Charles Brun, "Pauline Tarn," _Notes and Queries_, 22 Aug.,
1914; the same writer, who knew her well, has also written a
pamphlet, _Renee Vivien_, Sansot, Paris, 1911.) Her chief volumes
of poems are _Etudes et Preludes_ (1901), _Cendres et Poussieres_
(1902), _Evocations_ (1903). A novel, _Une Femme M'Apparut_
(1904), is said to be to some extent autobiographical. "Renee
Vivien" also wrote a volume on Sappho with translations, and a
further volume of poems, _Les Kitharedes_, suggested by the
fragments which remain of the minor women poets of Greece,
followers of Sappho.

It is, moreover, noteworthy that a remarkably large proportion of the
cases in which homosexuality has led to crimes of violence, or otherwise
come under medico-legal observation, has been among women. It is well
know that the part taken by women generally in open criminality, and
especially in crimes of violence, is small as compared with men.[144] In
the homosexual field, as we might have anticipated, the conditions are to
some extent reversed. Inverted men, in whom a more or less feminine
temperament is so often found, are rarely impelled to acts of aggressive
violence, though they frequently commit suicide. Inverted women, who may
retain their feminine emotionality combined with some degree of infantile
impulsiveness and masculine energy, present a favorable soil for the seeds
of passional crime, under those conditions of jealousy and allied emotions
which must so often enter into the invert's life.

The first conspicuous example of this tendency in recent times is
the Memphis case (1892) in the United States. (Arthur Macdonald,
"Observation de Sexualite Pathologique Feminine," _Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, May, 1895; see also Krafft-Ebing,
_Psychopathia Sexualis_, Eng. trans, of 10th ed., p. 550.) In
this case a congenital sexual invert, Alice Mitchell, planned a
marriage with Freda Ward, taking a male-name and costume. This
scheme was frustrated by Freda's sister, and Alice Mitchell then
cut Freda's throat. There is no reason to suppose that she was
insane at the time of the murder. She was a typical invert of a
very pronounced kind. Her mother had been insane and had
homicidal impulses. She herself was considered unbalanced, and
was masculine in her habits from her earliest years. Her face was
obviously unsymmetrical and she had an appearance of youthfulness
below her age. She was not vicious, and had little knowledge of
sexual matters, but when she kissed Freda she was ashamed of
being seen, while Freda could see no reason for being ashamed.
She was adjudged insane.

There have been numerous cases in America more recently. One case
(for some details concerning which I am indebted to Dr. J.G.
Kiernan, of Chicago) is that of the "Tiller Sisters," two
quintroons, who for many years had acted together under that name
in cheap theaters. One, who was an invert, with a horror of men
dating from early girlhood, was sexually attached to the other,
who was without inborn inversion, and was eventually induced by a
man to leave the invert. The latter, overcome by jealousy, broke
into the apartment of the couple and shot the man dead. She was
tried, and sent to prison for life. A defense of insanity was
made, but for this there was no evidence. In another case, also
occurring in Chicago (reported in _Medicine_, June, 1899, and
_Alienist and Neurologist_, October, 1899), a trained nurse lived
for fourteen years with a young woman who left her on four
different occasions, but was each time induced to return;
finally, however, she left and married, whereupon the nurse shot
the husband, who was not, however, fatally wounded. The culprit
in this case had been twice married, but had not lived with
either of her husbands; it was stated that her mother had died in
an asylum, and that her brother had committed suicide. She was
charged with disorderly conduct, and subjected to a fine.

In another later case in Chicago a Russian girl of 22, named Anna
Rubinowitch, shot from motives of jealousy another Russian girl
to whom she had been devoted from childhood, and then fatally
shot herself. The relations between the two girls had been very
intimate. "Our love affair is one purely of the soul," Anna
Rubinowitch was accustomed to say; "we love each other on a
higher plane than that of earth." (I am informed that there were
in fact physical relationships; the sexual organs were normal.)
This continued, with great devotion on each side, until Anna's
"sweetheart" began to show herself susceptible to the advances of
a male wooer. This aroused uncontrollable jealousy in Anna, whose
father, it may be noted, had committed suicide by shooting some
years previously.

Homosexual relationships are also a cause of suicide among women.
Such a case was reported in Massachusetts early in 1901. A girl
of 21 had been tended during a period of nervous prostration,
apparently of hysterical nature, by a friend and neighbor,
fourteen years her senior, married and having children. An
intimate friendship grew up, equally ardent on both sides. The
mother of the younger woman and the husband of the other took
measures to put a stop to the intimacy, and the girl was sent
away to a distant city; stolen interviews, however, still
occurred. Finally, when the obstacles became insurmountable, the
younger woman bought a revolver and deliberately shot herself in
the temple, in presence of her mother, dying immediately. Though
sometimes thought to act rather strangely, she was a great
favorite with all, handsome, very athletic, fond of all outdoor
sports, an energetic religious worker, possessing a fine voice,
and was an active member of many clubs and societies. The older
woman belonged to an aristocratic family and was loved and
respected by all. In another case in New York in 1905 a retired
sailor, "Captain John Weed," who had commanded transatlantic
vessels for many years, was admitted to a Home for old sailors
and shortly after became ill and despondent, and cut his throat.
It was then found that "Captain Weed" was really a woman. I am
informed that the old sailor's despondency and suicide were due
to enforced separation from a female companion.

The infatuation of young girls for actresses and other prominent
women may occasionally lead to suicide. Thus in Philadelphia, a
few years ago, a girl of 19, belonging to a very wealthy family,
beautiful and highly educated, acquired an absorbing infatuation
for Miss Mary Garden, the _prima donna_, with whom she had no
personal acquaintance. The young girl would kneel in worship
before the singer's portrait, and studied hairdressing and
manicuring in the hope of becoming Miss Garden's maid. When she
realized that her dream was hopeless she shot herself with a
revolver. (Cases more or less resembling those here brought
forward occur from time to time in all parts of the civilized
world. Reports, mostly from current newspapers, of such cases, as
well as of simple transvestism, or Eonism, in both women and men,
will be found in the publications of the Berlin
Wissenschaftlich-humanitaeren Komitee: the _Monatsberichte_ up to
1909, then in the _Vierteljahrsberichte_, and from 1913 onward in
the _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_.)

Yet, until recently, comparatively little has been known of sexual
inversion in women. Even so lately as 1901 (after the publication of the
first edition of the present Study), Krafft-Ebing wrote that scarcely
fifty cases had been recorded. The chief monographs devoted but little
space to women.

Krafft-Ebing himself, in the earlier editions of _Psychopathia
Sexualis_, gave little special attention to inversion in women,
although he published a few cases. Moll, however, included a
valuable chapter on the subject in his _Kontraere
Sexualempfindung_, narrating numerous cases, and inversion in
women also received special attention in the present Study.
Hirschfeld, however, in his _Homosexualitaet_ (1914) is the first
authority who has been able to deal with feminine homosexuality
as completely co-ordinate with masculine homosexuality. The two
manifestations, masculine and feminine, are placed on the same
basis and treated together throughout the work.

It is, no doubt, not difficult to account for this retardation in the
investigation of sexual inversion in women. Notwithstanding the severity
with which homosexuality in women has been visited in a few cases, for the
most part men seem to have been indifferent toward it; when it has been
made a crime or a cause for divorce in men, it has usually been considered
as no offense at all in women.[145] Another reason is that it is less
easy to detect in women; we are accustomed to a much greater familiarity
and intimacy between women than between men, and we are less apt to
suspect the existence of any abnormal passion. And, allied with this
cause, we have also to bear in mind the extreme ignorance and the extreme
reticence of women regarding any abnormal or even normal manifestation of
their sexual life. A woman may feel a high degree of sexual attraction for
another woman without realizing that her affection is sexual, and when she
does realize this, she is nearly always very unwilling to reveal the
nature of her intimate experience, even with the adoption of precautions,
and although the fact may be present to her that, by helping to reveal the
nature of her abnormality, she may be helping to lighten the burden of it
on other women. Among the numerous confessions voluntarily sent to
Krafft-Ebing there is not one by a woman. There is, again, the further
reason that well-marked and fully developed cases of inversion are
probably rarer in women, though a slighter degree may be more common; in
harmony with the greater affectability of the feminine organism to slight
stimuli, and its lesser liability to serious variation.[146]

The same aberrations that are found among men are, however, everywhere
found among women. Feminine inversion has sometimes been regarded as a
vice of modern refined civilization. Yet it was familiar to the
Anglo-Saxons, and Theodore's Penitential in the seventh century assigned a
penance of three years (considerably less than that assigned to men, or
for bestiality) to "a woman fornicating with a woman." Among the women of
savages in all parts of the world homosexuality is found, though it is
less frequently recorded than among men.[147]

In New Zealand it is stated on the authority of Moerenhout (though I have
not been able to find the reference) that the women practised Lesbianism.
In South America, where inversion is common among men, we find similar
phenomena in women. Among Brazilian tribes Gandavo[148] wrote:--

"There are certain women among these Indians who determine to be
chaste and know no man. These leave every womanly occupation and
imitate the men. They wear their hair the same way as the men;
they go to war with them or hunting, bearing their bows; they
continue always in the company of men, and each has a woman who
serves her and with whom she lives."

This has some analogy with the phenomena seen among North American men.
Dr. Holder, who has carefully studied the _bote_, tells me that he has met
no corresponding phenomena in women.

There is no doubt, however, that homosexuality among women is well known
to the American Indians in various regions. Thus the Salish Indians of
British Columbia have a myth of an old woman who had intercourse with a
young woman by means of a horn used as a penis.[149] In the mythology of
the Assiniboine Indians (of Canada and Montana) and the Fox Indians (of
Iowa) there are also legends of feminine homosexuality, supposed to have
been derived from the Algonkin Cree Indians, who were closely connected
with both.[150]

According to the Assiniboine legend, a man's wife fell in love
with his sister and eloped with her, a boneless child being the
result of the union; the husband pursued the couple, and killed
his wife as well as the child; no one cared to avenge her death.
The Fox legend, entitled "Two Maidens who Played the Harlot with
Each Other," runs as follows: "It is said that once on a time
long ago there were two young women who were friends together. It
is told that there were also two youths who tried to woo the two
maidens, but they were not able even so much as to talk with
them. After awhile the youths began to suspect something wrong.
So once during the summer, when the two maidens started away to
peel off bark, the youths followed, staying just far enough
behind to keep them in sight. While the girls were peeling the
bark, the youths kept themselves hidden. After awhile they no
longer heard the sound of the maidens at work. Whereupon they
began to creep up to where they were. When they drew nigh,
behold, the maidens were in the act of taking off their clothes.
The first to disrobe flung herself down on the ground and lay
there. 'Pray, what are these girls going to do?' was the feeling
in the hearts of the youths. And to their amazement the girls
began to lie with each other. Thereupon the youths ran to where
the girls were. She who was lying on top instantly fell over
backward. Her clitoris was standing out and had a queer shape; it
was like a turtle's penis. Thereupon the maidens began to plead
with the youths: 'Oh, don't tell on us!' they said. 'Truly it is
not of our own free desire that we have done this thing We have
done it under the influence of some unknown being.' It is said
that afterward one of the maidens became big with child. In the
course of time, she gave birth, and the child was like a
soft-shell turtle."

In Bali, according to Jacobs (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels),
homosexuality is almost as common among women as among men, though it is
more secretly exercised; the methods of gratification adopted are either
digital or lingual, or else by bringing the parts together (tribadism).

Baumann, who noted inversion among the male negro population of Zanzibar,
finds that it is also not rare among women. Although Oriental manners
render it impossible for such women to wear men's clothes openly, they do
so in private, and are recognized by other women by their man-like
bearing, as also by the fact that women's garments do not suit them. They
show a preference for masculine occupations, and seek sexual satisfaction
among women who have the same inclinations, or else among normal women,
who are won over by presents or other means. In addition to tribadism or
cunnilinctus, they sometimes use an ebony or ivory phallus, with a kind of
glans at one end, or sometimes at both ends; in the latter case it can be
used by two women at once, and sometimes it has a hole bored through it by
which warm water can be injected; it is regarded as an Arab invention, and
is sometimes used by normal women shut up in harems, and practically
deprived of sexual satisfaction.[151]

Among the Arab women, according to Kocher, homosexual practices are rare,