tive associations; but that heredity can extend to the
object of the appetite, and influence the contents of these characters, is
not shown. Psychological experiences are against it, and the possibility,
which I have shown, of changing these impulses by experiment and so
removing their danger to the character of the individual." It need not be
asserted that "heredity extends to the object of the appetite," but simply
that heredity culminates in an organism which is sexually best satisfied
by that object. It is also a mistake to suppose that congenital characters
cannot be, in some cases, largely modified by such patient and laborious
processes as those carried on by Schrenck-Notzing. In the same pamphlet
this writer refers to moral insanity and idiocy as supporting his point of
view. It is curious that both these congenital manifestations had
independently occurred to me as arguments against his position. The
experiences of Elmira Reformatory and Bicetre--not to mention institutions
of more recent establishment--long since showed that both the morally
insane and the idiotic can be greatly improved by appropriate treatment.
Schrenck-Notzing seems to be unduly biased by his interest in hypnotism
and suggestion.

[190] "If an invert acquires, under the influence of external conditions,"
Fere wrote with truth (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 238), "it is because he was
born with an aptitude for such acquisition: an aptitude lacking in those
who have been subjected to the same conditions without making the same
acquisitions."

[191] One of my subjects writes: "Inverts are, I think, naturally more
liable to indulge in self-gratification than normal people, partly because
of the perpetual suppression and disappointment of their desires, and also
because of the fact that they actually possess in themselves the desired
form of the male. This idea is a little difficult of explanation, but you
can readily imagine to what frenzies of self-abuse a normal man would be
impelled supposing that he included in his own the form of the female."

[192] I do not here enter upon the consideration of the normal prevalence
and significance of masturbation and allied phenomena, as I have dealt
with this subject in the study of "Auto-erotism," in volume i of these
_Studies_.

[193] Hirschfeld also finds, among German inverts (_Die Homosexualitaet_,
ch. iii), that the majority (though a smaller majority than I find in
England and the United States) hav