ert hospital
attendant, who fell madly in love with one of his comrades and covered
ten meters of white tape with the name of his beloved. The most
passionate love letters, vows of fidelity till death, the most
ferocious jealousy toward other friends of their beloved, and even
ceremonies symbolical of marriage, are daily events among the
homosexuals.

The invert does not so easily become enamored of another invert as of
normal men. These have a special attraction for him, but as they
generally repulse him with disgust, or threaten to expose or exploit
him, he is often obliged to content himself with his fellows. These
gentlemen form among themselves a secret brotherhood, a kind of
freemasonry which is recognized by signs.

The first appearance of the homosexual appetite with its youthful
impulses, causes love and happiness to appear to the invert in a
special aspect, determined by the inverted irradiation of his sexual
appetite. It represents the aim of his life as an amorous union with
his beloved, and shapes his idylls, his romance and his ideal to this
end. But later on, when his sexual desire increases and when he
discovers that the majority of men feel differently to him, that the
human race is reproduced by the union of men and women, etc., he
becomes unhappy. He perceives that it would be both ridiculous and
dangerous to reveal his inner feelings, and generally gives way to
masturbation. But all social barriers which oppose his appetite only
increase his desire, and he becomes less and less able to dominate his
passion for certain young men. The disgust and indignation of the
latter, when they discover that they are not the object of simple
affection but of perverted sexual love, are expressed only too
clearly, and the poor invert sees himself condemned to perpetual
torment in trying to hide his most violent desires and his most
intimate and ideal aspirations, and finally to live in continual dread
of being betrayed and prosecuted. It is thus easy to understand that
he is happy in the discovery that his fellows form a secret society,
and he associates with them immediately, when his moral sense and will
are not strong enough to be proof against it.

_If the invert succeeds in finding a male to his liking and with a
similar degenerative state of mind to his own, he will pay him the
attention that the normal man would to a woman. It is therefore
reasonable to believe that this mode of inversion is likewise an