company," as he has been termed, seems to have been a true sexual
invert, of feminine type; he dressed as a woman and was devoted to the men
he loved.[45]

Homosexual practices everywhere flourish and abound in prisons. There is
abundant evidence on this point. I will only bring forward the evidence of
Dr. Wey, formerly physician to the Elmira Reformatory, New York.
"Sexuality" (he wrote in a private letter) "is one of the most troublesome
elements with which we have to contend. I have no data as to the number of
prisoners here who are sexually perverse. In my pessimistic moments I
should feel like saying that all were; but probably 80 per cent, would be
a fair estimate." And, referring to the sexual influence which some men
have over others, he remarks that "there are many men with features
suggestive of femininity that attract others to them in a way that reminds
me of a bitch in heat followed by a pack of dogs."[46] In Sing Sing prison
of New York, 20 per cent, of the prisoners are said to be actively
homosexual and a large number of the rest passively homosexual. These
prison relationships are not always of a brutal character, McMurtrie
states, the attraction sometimes being more spiritual than physical.[47]

Prison life develops and fosters the homosexual tendency of criminals; but
there can be little doubt that that tendency, or else a tendency to sexual
indifference or bisexuality, is a radical character of a very large number
of criminals. We may also find it to a considerable extent among tramps,
an allied class of undoubted degenerates, who, save for brief seasons, are
less familiar with prison life. I am able to bring forward interesting
evidence on this point by an acute observer who lived much among tramps in
various countries, and largely devoted himself to the study of them.[48]

The fact that homosexuality is especially common among men of exceptional
intellect was long since noted by Dante:--

"In somma sappi, che tutti fur cherci
E litterati grandi, et di gran fama
D'un medismo peccato al mondo lerci."[49]

It has often been noted since and remains a remarkable fact.

There cannot be the slightest doubt that intellectual and
artistic abilities of the highest order have frequently been
associated with a congenitally inverted sexual temperament. There
has been a tendency among inverts themselves to discover their
own temperament in many distinguished persons on evide