ple or suggestion. As the
sexual emotions become stronger, and as the lad leaves school or college
to mix with men and women in the world, the instinct usually turns into
the normal channel, in which channel the instincts of the majority of boys
have been directed from the earliest appearance of puberty, if not
earlier. But a certain proportion remain insensitive to the influence of
women, and these may be regarded as true sexual inverts. Some of them are
probably individuals of somewhat undeveloped sexual instincts. The members
of this group are of some interest psychologically, although from the
comparative quiescence of their sexual emotions they have received little
attention. The following communication which I have received from a
well-accredited source is noteworthy from this point of view:--

"The following facts may possibly be of interest to you, though
my statement of them is necessarily general and vague. I happen
to know intimately three cases of men whose affections have
chiefly been directed exclusively to persons of their own sex.
The first, having practised masturbation as a boy, and then for
some ten years ceased to practise it (to such an extent that he
even inhibited his erotic dreams), has since recurred to it
deliberately (at about fortnightly intervals) as a substitute for
copulation, for which he has never felt the least desire. But
occasionally, when sleeping with a male friend, he has emissions
in the act of embracing. The second is constantly and to an
abnormal extent (I should say) troubled with erotic dreams and
emissions, and takes drugs, by doctor's advice, to reduce this
activity. He has recently developed a sexual interest in women,
but for ethical and other reasons does not copulate with them. Of
the third I can say little, as he has not talked to me on the
subject; but I know that he has never had intercourse with women,
and has always had a natural and instinctive repulsion to the
idea. In all these, I imagine, the physical impulse of sex is
less imperative than in the average man. The emotional impulse,
on the other hand, is very strong. It has given birth to
friendships of which I find no adequate description anywhere but
in the dialogues of Plato; and, beyond a certain feeling of
strangeness at the gradual discovery of a temperament apparently
different to that of most men, it has pr