akes a capital
difference between these two causes, and stigmatizes the acquired
vices with great indignation. I do not deny that there is reason for
the distinction, but we must take exception to two fundamental errors
in the manner in which the facts are presented.

In the first place, the difference between hereditary and acquired
sexual anomalies is only relative and gradual, so that it is necessary
to avoid opposing one against the other. When an anomaly arrives
spontaneously in the first sexual glimmer of the child's mind during
its development, it is obvious that it is the expression of a profound
hereditary taint, the result of blastophthoria or of unfortunate
combinations of ancestral energies which have been associated by the
conjugation of the two procreative germs. In such a case it is
comparatively easy to prove that this is a pathological symptom
independent of the will of the individual. But a continuous series of
degrees in the intensity of a hereditary predisposition to a certain
sexual anomaly, or to other anomalies or peculiarities apt to provoke
this anomaly, insensibly connects the purely hereditary pathological
appetite with that which is simply the effect of acquired vicious
habits. In this way a strong hereditary predisposition may exaggerate
a moderate normal sexual appetite, or may give it a pathological
direction under influences which would have had no effect in a less
predisposed individual. Again, a slightly marked tendency to
homosexuality in a man may increase under the seductive influence of a
passionate invert, when the same individual would have lost this
tendency if he had fallen seriously in love with a woman. On the other
hand, the invert would have no influence on an individual who was not
predisposed.

If the hereditary disposition is very strong, it is developed
spontaneously or under the influence of very slight circumstances. If
it is mediocre, it may remain latent and even become extinct when
favorable circumstances do not awaken it. When it is entirely absent
the most powerful seduction and the most evil influence cannot give
rise to the corresponding anomaly. These facts are sufficient to show
what abuse is made of the term _acquired vice_. Under this heading are
designated a number of peculiarities the roots of which are to a great
extent contained in the germ of heredity.

The power of words on the human mind produces antinomies which do not
really exist; such is the c