lcohol adds its
influence; also among nervous or ill-balanced individuals. In my
opinion it is absolutely unreasonable for the superintendent of a
lunatic asylum to organize balls at which the insane of both sexes are
provided with beer or wine. I have only seen bad results from this,
while I have obtained excellent effects from a temporary reunion of
the insane of both sexes, by avoiding all alcoholic drinks as well as
everything which could excite the sexual appetite, such as dancing, or
the bringing together of erotic or perverted individuals. A young
female onanist who suffered from sexual excitement complicated with a
nervous condition, complained to me of being obliged to work as a
telegraphist among young men, as this continually excited her
eroticism without the possibility of satisfying it.

This situation, which is a common one in both sexes, gives us a
valuable indication. No doubt life in common for the two sexes is
normal and natural, but only on the condition that it leads eventually
to normal sexual intercourse as the result of love. It is neither
healthy nor normal to excite an appetite continually without
satisfying it. Any one who wishes to live a continent life, for
religious or other reasons, ought not to expose himself to continual
excitement by too great intimacy with the opposite sex; he should, on
the contrary, avoid everything which tends to excite his sexual
appetite and seek everything which tends to pacify it. I am not
referring here to individuals of a naturally cold and indifferent
nature, who run little or no risk under such circumstances.

Certain occupations, such as those of employees in stores, telegraph
offices, etc., in which the two sexes are closely associated in their
work, constitute from this point of view a double-edged sword. Other
unhealthy and monotonous occupations, combined with bad conditions of
food and lodging, and with all kinds of seduction--factory hands for
example--have a positively deleterious effect on sexual life, which
becomes absolutely depraved when the two sexes work together. The
situation is hardly any better when they are only separated during
working hours.

=Internats.=--All internats, _i.e._, all establishments where
individuals of the same sex live in the same dwelling for a long time,
exert a peculiar influence on sexual life--schools and convents, for
example.

The great inconvenience of all these establishments lies in the danger
of contamina