s a
boy, only cared for boys' games, and as she grew up was sexually attracted
only to women, with whom she formed a series of tender relationships, in
which the friends obtained sexual gratification by mutual caresses; while
she blushed and was shy in the presence of women, more especially the girl
with whom she chanced to be in love, she was always absolutely indifferent
in the presence of men. Westphal--a pupil, it may be noted, of Griesinger,
who had already called attention to the high character sometimes shown by
subjects of this perversion--combined keen scientific insight with a rare
degree of personal sympathy for those who came under his care, and it was
this combination of qualities which enabled him to grasp the true nature
of a case such as this, which by most medical men at that time would have
been hastily dismissed as a vulgar instance of vice or insanity. Westphal
perceived that this abnormality was congenital, not acquired, so that it
could not be termed vice; and, while he insisted on the presence of
neurotic elements, his observations showed the absence of anything that
could legitimately be termed insanity. He gave to this condition the name
of "contrary sexual feeling" (_Kontraere Sexualempfindung_), by which it
was long usually known in Germany. The way was thus made clear for the
rapid progress of our knowledge of this abnormality. New cases were
published in quick succession, at first exclusively in Germany, and more
especially in Westphal's _Archiv_, but soon in other countries also,
chiefly Italy and France.[113]

While Westphal was the first to place the study of sexual inversion on a
progressive footing, many persons had previously obtained glimpses into
the subject. Thus, in 1791, two cases were published[114] of men who
showed a typical emotional attraction to their own sex, though it was not
quite clearly made out that the inversion was congenital. In 1836, again,
a Swiss writer, Heinrich Hoessli, published a rather diffuse but remarkable
work, entitled _Eros_, which contained much material of a literary
character bearing on this matter. He seems to have been moved to write
this book by a trial which had excited considerable attention at that
time. A man of good position had suddenly murdered a youth, and was
executed for the crime, which, according to Hoessli, was due to homosexual
love and jealousy. Hoessli was not a trained scholar; he was in business at
Glarus as a skillful milliner, t