o master themselves and check their appetite in all ways, and are
sometimes affected with nervous or mental depression. It is important,
however, to recognize the fact, that many sexual hyperaesthetics remain
quite fresh and active, and attain an advanced age, provided they
escape alcohol and venereal disease.

When sexual hyperaesthesia results chiefly from artificially acquired
habits it may often be cured by hypnotic suggestion, and establishing
self-control; but when it is hereditary and very intense, and
especially when it is connected with infantile paradoxy or other
anomalies, castration may be the only efficient remedy. When it is
chiefly acquired, any strong diversion which turns the mind from
sexual preoccupation to other subjects may have an excellent curative
effect. The most intense hereditary cases may constitute a plague for
the individual and for society, and it is then that castration may
become a blessing by calming the obsessed patient, by giving him the
opportunity for useful occupation, and by preventing him from abusing
his fellows and procreating beings similar to himself.

Nymphomaniacs often have polyandrous instincts, and they then become
more insatiable than men. Several cases of this kind have been
published in the press, and examples of such women are not rare in
history. When a woman is possessed by passion she often loses all
sense of shame, all moral sense and all discretion, as regards the
object of her desires. She pays no attention to anything which is
opposed to her passion, but may be full of reserve, tact and
good-feeling in all other respects. Cases of this kind, however, have
always a more or less marked pathological character.

In man, satyriasis is very frequent. It often happens that a husband
continually forces his wife to coitus, even during menstruation. We
have mentioned already the case of an old peasant of seventy who thus
abused his poor old wife. In such cases conjugal infidelity very
commonly occurs. The cynicism of such individuals may go so far that
they have intercourse with prostitutes or servants in the presence of
their wives, or even abuse their own children. The wife behaves in
these cases in different ways according to her character. Many
tolerate everything and do not complain, for the sake of their
children; others leave the husband or divorce him; some commit
suicide.

It would seem quite natural for nymphomaniacs to marry satyrs, but we
must bear in m