fic criticism to eliminate eroticism in order to be
exact and impartial. We shall, therefore, do all that is possible to
free ourselves from it in the course of the present study.

The sexual question is of fundamental importance for humanity, whose
happiness and well-being depend largely on the best solution of this
important problem. In dealing with such a delicate subject I shall
endeavor to avoid narrow-mindedness and prejudice; I shall avoid
tiresome quotations, and shall only employ technical terms when
necessary, as they rather interfere with the comprehension of the
subject. I shall take care to explain all those which appear to me
indispensable.

My opinions on the sexual question are based, on the one hand, on my
scientific study of the human brain, and on the other hand on the long
personal experience of an alienist who has devoted himself almost as
much to normal mentality and questions of social hygiene as to
pathological mentality. I have, however, been obliged to rely on the
fundamental work of _Westermark_ with regard to ethnology, this
subject being strange to me. Concerning sexual psycho-pathology I have
followed the classification of _Krafft-Ebing_.

The sexual question is extraordinarily complex, and we cannot expect
to find a simple solution for it as we can for the questions of
alcoholism, slavery, torture, etc. The latter are solved in one
word--suppression. Suppression of slavery and torture; suppression of
the usage of alcoholic drinks. We are concerned here with ulcers
artificially produced and preserved in human society; ulcers which
must be simply extirpated. Their suppression is nothing but
beneficial, since, far from being connected with the normal conditions
of human existence, they place it in peril. Sexual instinct and
sentiment, on the contrary, have their roots in life itself; they are
intimately bound up with humanity, and therefore require quite a
different treatment. But human society has guided them into false and
pernicious ways. It is important to turn them from these in order to
tranquilize and regulate their course by damming them up and
canalizing them.

The fundamental axiom of the sexual question is as follows:

_With man, as with all living beings, the constant object of all
sexual function, and consequently of sexual love, is the reproduction
of the species._ It is therefore necessary to treat the question from
the point of view of the natural sciences, physiology, p