of varying degrees of value. Some are of persons whom I
have known very well for very long periods, and concerning whom I
can speak very positively. A few are from complete strangers
whose good faith, however, I judge from internal evidence that I
am able to accept. Two or three were written by persons
who--though educated, in one case a journalist--had never heard
of inversion, and imagined that their own homosexual feelings
were absolutely unique in the world. A fair number were written
by persons whom I do not myself know, but who are well known to
others in whose judgment I feel confidence. Perhaps the largest
number are concerned with individuals who wrote to me
spontaneously in the first place, and whom I have at intervals
seen or heard from since, in some cases during a very long
period, so that I have slowly been able to fill in their
histories, although the narratives, as finally completed, may
have the air of being written down at a single sitting. I have
not admitted any narrative which I do not feel that I am
entitled to regard as a substantially accurate statement of the
facts, although allowance must occasionally be made for the
emotional coloring of these facts, the invert sometimes
cherishing too high an opinion, and sometimes too low an opinion,
of his own personality.

HISTORY I.--Both parents healthy; father of unusually fine
_physique_. He is himself a manual worker and also of
exceptionally fine _physique_. He is, however, of nervous
temperament. He is mentally bright, though not highly educated, a
keen sportsman, and in general a good example of an all-around
healthy Englishman.

While very affectionate, his sexual desires are not strongly
developed on the physical side, and seem never to have been so.
He sometimes masturbated about the age of puberty, but never
afterward. He does not appear to have well-marked erotic dreams.
There used to be some attraction toward women, though it was
never strong. At the age of 26 he was seduced by a woman and had
connection with her once. Afterward he had reason to think she
had played him false in various ways. This induced the strongest
antipathy, not only to this woman, but to all marriageable women.
A year after this episode homosexual feeling first became clear
and defined. He is now 33, and feels the