ase with the terms _vice_ and _disease_.
Vices depend on a hereditary mnemic disposition, of varying strength
and more or less pathological, or at any rate unilateral (_i.e._,
developed in one direction only, or connected with a single group of
objects); according to the good or evil influence of the environment
they may develop, become limited or even fail to appear. Inversely, we
may say that many diseases, especially of the brain, are the source of
vices.

In the second place, it follows from this fundamental principle, that
the vicious and apparently acquired conduct of certain individuals
should not be considered as the product of perverted free will, but
rather as the unfortunate and destructive result of a bad hereditary
disposition developed under the influence of the bad habits of a
corrupt environment. This environment being itself composed of men,
there is a vicious circle of cause and effect which will not escape
the mind of the thoughtful reader. Bad habits are made by hereditary
forces, and bad habits develop in their turn by custom, and may even
create, by blastophthoria, vicious hereditary dispositions. The
indignation of the moralists who condemn vicious persons are very like
the temper of a child who strikes the fire which burnt him.

REFLEX ANOMALIES

We have already mentioned vaginismus, which is often produced in women
by the first coitus. Priapism in man is somewhat analogous to
vaginismus. It is produced by an exaggerated reflex irritability of
the nerve centers for erection, and results in continual and painful
erections, which sometimes end in ejaculation without sensation.
Another anomaly, more or less reflex and very frequent, produces
voluptuous sensations and premature ejaculation after short and
incomplete erections. In some nervous women also, the venereal orgasm
occurs very rapidly and briefly. These anomalies belong to the domain
of medicine and are of little importance for our subject.

PSYCHIC IMPOTENCE

Psychic impotence is a symptom which occurs accidentally in the normal
state and very frequently in psychopathological conditions.

A representation or idea of any kind, may suddenly paralyze by
suggestive action the normal reflex mechanism of the center for
erection. The blood ceases to accumulate in the corpora cavernosa and
erection is either arrested or not produced at all. For example, a
very excited lover, who has had strong erections at the moment when he
prepared to