tion from habits of onanism or pederasty. Inverts are
strongly attracted towards internats, where they find their heart's
desire where they can easily indulge their perverted passions; the
dormitory of such an institution having the same effect on them as
that of a girl's school would have on a young man. (Vide Chapter
VIII.)

This is a matter which has not received sufficient attention in
organizing boarding-schools for boys and girls, because it was not
known that homosexual instincts are hereditary and innate. Such cases
were regarded only as acquired bad habits.

Lunatic asylums are especially attractive to sexual inverts, who apply
for the positions of attendants or nurse so as to be able to indulge
their passions on the insane patients, who are incapable of betraying
them.

Without being homosexual, nor even seduced by inverts, many normal but
erotic individuals try to satisfy their sexual appetite on their
companions--boys by pederasty, girls by lesbian love, and both sexes
by mutual onanism.

The chief danger is that of some sexually perverted individual gaining
entry to a boarding-school and contaminating numbers of normal
individuals, without anything being discovered; because it is much
more difficult to supervise a school than a family. This could be
remedied better by confidence between masters and pupils than by
supervision.

=Varia.=--I should never finish if I attempted to describe all the
influences of environment. The examples mentioned will suffice to
show that, in a natural appetite such as the sexual, the two extremes
of asceticism and excess lead to evil and unnatural aberrations, and
that the important point is to find or create a healthy environment
for a healthy sexual life.

We hear a good deal about good or bad luck or chance in the matter of
love. I do not deny that fortuitous circumstances often determine the
happiness of an individual in his love affairs. But it is all the more
deplorable that what is called the good manners of society make it so
difficult to correct Cupid's blunders. There is room for improvement
in this direction, and many spoilt lives and much unhappiness might be
avoided. The unfavorable influence of environment might often be
corrected by separation or change, if this could be done in time.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Vide "Alkoholvergiftung und Degeneration" by Bunge: Leipzig 1904;
and "Hygiene of the Nerves and Mind" by Forel: Stuttgart 1905.

CHAPTER XII