bitation in marriage
during the period of pregnancy, (3) artificial precautions against
impregnation, and (4) some abnormal modes of congress with the consent
of the female. It is therefore in an illogical position, when it
interferes with the action of those who are naturally sterile, on the
ground of maintaining the numerical standard of the population.

VIII.

The danger that unnatural vices, if tolerated by the law, would increase
until whole nations acquired them, does not seem to be formidable. The
position of women in our civilisation renders sexual relations among us
occidentals different from those of any country--ancient Greece and
Rome, modern Turkey and Persia--where antiphysical habits have hitherto
become endemic.

IX.

In modern France, since the promulgation of the Code Napoleon, sexual
inversion has been tolerated under the same restrictions as normal
sexuality. That is to say, violence and outrages to public decency are
punished, and minors are protected, but adults are allowed to dispose as
they like of their own persons. The experience of nearly a century shows
that in France, where sexual inversion is not criminal _per se_, there
has been no extension of it through society. Competent observers, like
agents of police, declare that London, in spite of our penal
legislation, is no less notorious for abnormal vice than Paris.

X.

Italy, by the Penal Code of 1889, adopted the principles of the Code
Napoleon on this point. It would be interesting to know what led to this
alteration of the Italian law. But it cannot be supposed that the
results of the Code Napoleon in France were not fully considered.

XI.

The severity of the English statutes render them almost incapable of
being put in force. In consequence of this the law is not unfrequently
evaded, and crimes are winked at.

XII.

At the same time our laws encourage blackmailing upon false accusation;
and the presumed evasion of their execution places from time to time a
vile weapon in the hands of unscrupulous politicians, to attack the
Government in office. Examples: the Dublin Castle Scandals of 1884, the
Cleveland Street Scandals of 1889.

XIII.

Those who hold that our penal laws are required by the interests of
society must turn their attention to the higher education. This still
rests on the study of the Greek and Latin classics, a literature
impregnated with paederastia. It is carried on at public schools, where
y