osexual love in man._ It seems absurd that the whole sexual
appetite and amorous ideals of a man can be directed all his life to
persons of his own sex. This pathological phenomenon, however, is as
common as it is certain, although its psychological and normal import
has long been misapprehended, as much in judicial circles as by the
general public. It is the inverts themselves, aided by psychiatrists,
who have finally thrown light on the subject. An invert, named Ulrich,
announced himself publicly as the apostle of homosexual love,
describing inverts under the name of _Urnings_, a name which is still
used in Germany. Ulrich and his disciples endeavored to prove an
absurdity by maintaining that homosexuals are a special kind of normal
men, and by attempting to obtain legal sanction for this kind of love.
Ulrich gives the name _Dionings_ to men whose sexual appetite is
normal, _i.e._, directed toward women. Such a pretension appears
necessarily ridiculous to every man whose sexual sense is normal, and
it is obviously absurd to apply the term "normal" to a sexual appetite
absolutely devoid of its natural object, procreation. But this is
quite characteristic of the sentiments of inverts.

Hirschfeld, of Berlin, has recently attempted to show that homosexuals
constitute a variety of normal man; but he plays with words and facts,
invoking the names of celebrated inverts, and wrongly asserts that
inversion is not hereditary.

From the first dawn of sexual feeling in youth, male inverts have the
same feelings as girls toward other boys. They feel the need for
passive submission, they become easily enraptured over novels and
dress, they like to occupy themselves with feminine pursuits, to dress
like girls and to frequent women's societies. They regard women as
friends, as persons with whom they have a fellow-feeling. They
generally, but not always, have a banal sentimentalism, they are fond
of religious forms and ceremonies, they admire fine clothes and
luxurious apartments; they dress their hair and "fake" themselves with
a coquetry which often exceeds that of women. They are not all like
this, but one or other of these traits predominates in different
individuals.

Their sexual appetite, usually very strong and precocious, begins with
an exalted love for some male friend. I have treated a great number of
inverts and have always been struck with the intensity of their
passion. Among other cases, I may mention that of an inv