Question Seven: Concerning the Causes and Remedies of Lust

I. The principal cause is the very natural propensity or instinct of man toward the propagation of the species; after original sin this is inordinate, as not subject to reason but rebellious. Deliberately adhering reason and the will freely consenting and taking pleasure in it perfect the very sin of lust.

But various causes can excite and increase the aforesaid instinct, and thus move and lead reason and will. All of these can be reduced to a threefold genus:

1. Some directly influence the body itself, as the constant and copious use of drugs; crustaceans, fish, oysters, strong-smelling celery, stronger coffee or chocolate, sulphurous thermal waters; abundant alcoholic drinks; exciting foods which are stronger and copious, especially meat and game, or very hot and seasoned, in one word: the sin of gluttony; but especially the cantharides fly,¹ and medical potions specially prepared for exciting, remedies against impotence, for example hashish, distillation from the pistils of hemp. Likewise great heats and more fervid days; likewise various exercises of riding or dancing; the use of little carriages, wheels or bicycles, carriages for women, the sewing machine; a soft bed; garments too silken or too warming, or adhering to the legs, or compressing the genitals; prolonged sittings, lying on the back; defect of bodily care, especially of the genitals; filling of the urinary bladder, constriction of the belly or constipation.

¹ The cantharides, a beetle of gold and azure; the Spanish fly.

2. Others influence the senses. Some of these are external: soft and effeminate education, luxury, idleness; bad examples of others; the counsel of impious physicians to pollute oneself at least once in a week, for health, or to go to women, for diminishing inclination; mothers, nurses, maidservants who, to quiet infants, excite venereal feeling by handling their genital members.

Others are internal: the peculiar state of the organism, such as a sanguine and nervous temperament; illnesses which affect the nervous system, such as pulmonary phthisis and hysteria. There accede the great pleasure which this vice brings, and the ease by which it can be hidden.

3. Others are external occasions which move the soul. They are sensual, vain, and illicit loves, founded in organic sympathy alone, which are nourished by readings, spectacles, and dances. Such love can exist toward persons of different sex, as are flirts, or toward persons of the same sex, whether from petulance for the sake of laughing, or from sensual or carnal affection. But if it is toward a person of different sex or toward a young man, it will easily be an occasion of grave scandal in a clerical or religious person; likewise, even platonic love of a married person toward an unmarried person of different sex.

II. The effects of this vice are some physical, some psychological, some moral.

1. Physical. Young persons addicted to this vice easily contract a habit altogether tyrannical, which greatly weakens their strength: the frequency of immodest acts disturbs the whole nervous system and brain; hence grave irritations of the nervous system, weakness and general fatigue, headaches, diminished appetite for food, convulsions of the limbs, weakening of sight, hearing, and memory; then involuntary or passive pollutions accede, vehement palpitations of the heart, disturbance of circulation; sometimes also, but more rarely, incurable diseases: phthisis, dropsy, epilepsy, tabes dorsalis, phthisis of the spinal marrow, and among women, inflammation of the uterus, hysteria. Often also by frequent masturbation the potency of coeundi and generating is lost.

2. Psychological effects are: arrogance, melancholy, hypochondria, seeking of solitude, neurasthenia, and dementia.

3. Moral effects are depression of soul, enervation of will, inability for labors, especially intellectual ones: namely, the acuteness of the intellect and the energy of the will are weakened to such a point that they can scarcely abstain from sin. For the mind, infected with obscene images, can scarcely think of other things; soon noble ideas and pure affections vanish, and insane egoism prevails.

Nevertheless, not all these effects are always produced, nor in the same degree in all. For there are men of so robust a constitution of body that from this vice they suffer only slight injuries to health and light disturbances of the nerves. Therefore those who try to deter lustful young persons from vice by setting forth its evil effects must beware of exaggerations. Yet the danger is present lest an inveterate and almost incurable habit be contracted, from which the aforesaid effects more or less follow.

III. Remedies. 1. Some are natural or hygienic as to the body: wholesome diet, frugal nourishment, sufficient, not consisting too much in meat and sweets, but rather comprising light foods, of easy digestion, not exciting, which in small volume provide sufficient nutrition; abstinence from very alcoholic drinks and in the evening from meats; a hard bed, not softer bedding; clothing not warmer, adhering to the legs, compressing the genitals, which renders the body too delicate; lying not on the back: since the dorsal position excites the genital nerves, lying should be lateral, and indeed on the right side; an ordered life, with a determined hour for rising and lying down; bodily labor or the intellectual labor of intense study; cleanliness of the body, especially of the genitals, especially in a girl, from frequent cold washing, for example morning and evening; honorable games by which the body is exercised even to fatigue, so that sleep immediately rushes in and the imagination does not excite dreams; evacuation of the urinary bladder before lying down. There are besides medicines and drugs by which nervous erections, if they are very frequent, vehement, and abnormal, are repressed by the counsel of a physician, for example pills from lupulin, hyoscine and bromide, camphor, adalin for treating masturbators; likewise sometimes hypnotism; likewise for girls, partial amputation of the clitoral organ,² which nevertheless is held illicit by some, because such amputation, which these call notable, can be done only for the direct good of the whole body. In infants sometimes worms infect the anus, which are the cause of nervous excitation, against which a medicinal remedy is usually employed.

² Antonelli, o. c., tom. I, n. 614-618, notes: "A twofold remedy can be provided, that is, hygienic and mechanical. The principal hygienic rule is: to distract the mind and exercise the body even to fatigue; hence frequent, indeed daily prolonged walks, gymnastics, journeys, cold baths of the sea in summer time and daily very brief washing of the whole body with common water, to imbue mind and spirit with the best ideas. When the body is tired in the evening, sleep invades quickly until morning. Let the bed be hard; sleep should not be taken lying on the back; first thing in the morning, scarcely has sleep been shaken off, it is necessary to rise quickly; in the evening partial cold baths, hip-baths, contribute much; before they go to bed, let them take a cup from whey of milk or from a decoction of barley. If nervous excitation brings on vehement erections, washings of camphorated oil around the genitals or a sponge or compress of cold water with vinegar over the genitals provide very good effects. To all these things there must be added the continued vigilance of parents or institutions and the will in young persons of this kind of correcting themselves from this vice.

2. Others are psychological as to the senses: to distract the mind, to nourish excellent ideas; to struggle against passions; to restrain the imagination; not to confuse pleasure with happiness; to avoid depraved companions as well as solitude; in the morning, once sleep has been shaken off, to rise at once; to mortify the senses, for example by moderate subtraction of food or sleep, indeed by chastisement of the body and scourges, provided they are not prolonged for a long time and do not excite concupiscence more, as easily happens if they are applied to the thighs or loins, a fortiori if to the genitals.

3. Others are moral as to the soul. a. Remote ones are: a generous spirit which removes egoism and prefers urbanity to one's own convenience; cultivation of sincerity; confidence in parents, confessor, superiors; magnanimity in the noble destination of life; modesty of eyes and gesture; humility and piety toward God present, Christ suffering, the Blessed Virgin, the Guardian Angel, and so forth; frequent reception of the sacraments and immediate confession after a fall; great esteem for purity and horror of vice, for inculcating which the vigor of the chaste and the sadness of the impure can be effective.

b. Proximate ones are either negative: flight from occasions, namely to avoid vain loves, frivolous readings, spectacles, excessive contact and immoderate frequentations with persons of the other sex, and dances;

or positive: to strengthen the will so that, pleasure having been despised, apt remedies are strenuously employed; frequently to renew the resolution of living chastely; with firm and tranquil soul to propose the rejection of temptation and flight from every relapse; to trust in the divine help of grace; to resist immediately and strongly. Sometimes marriage is an efficacious remedy.³

³ Compare Saint Francis de Sales, Introduction a la Vie Devote, p. III, c. XVI and XVIII.

IV. Especially as to education. Since the younger, like soft wax, receive any distinct impressions, it is of the greatest interest that already from tender years they learn how highly they ought to value purity of body and soul, and therefore with how great a horror they ought to flee whatever smells of impurity. Therefore let them be taught with how great reverence they ought to treat their own body, which is the instrument of the soul in acting, and belongs to the proper dominion of the whole Trinity, as created by the Father, the supreme Lord; redeemed by the Son and joined to him as a member; consecrated by the Holy Spirit as his temple. Therefore let them be conscious that they cannot use according to whim a body over which they do not have dominion, but only according to God's good pleasure, and therefore that sensual looks and touches are to be avoided, and nothing is to be done privately which they would be ashamed to do before parents and honorable persons. Therefore let nothing be said or done before them which can excite morbid and dangerous curiosity; for they attend to these things while they seem distracted by other things; what they see they desire to imitate; what excites curiosity they carefully investigate. Yet not all things should be mysteriously kept silent from false shame, or explained by fictitious interpretations, as if those things which are honorable were sins. Thus, for example, even to the younger let it be said that God gives children to parents as the blessing or fruit of their union.

Especially:

a. In tender age, care must be taken lest nurses, servants, and others conversing with children say or do anything indecorous which can cast an impure thought into their minds; for some still innocent have been corrupted by the depraved conversations or examples of servants. Boys and girls should not sleep in the same room, and especially not in the same bed, unless perhaps they are very little; indeed each one should have a separate bed. They should learn to lie down with hands placed upon the sheets or under the head, or even joined in the form of a cross. Chastity should be said to be required of them by natural decency, since the genitals serve, or are found nearer, the lower functions, whence nature for both inspires the same care of bodily purity; yet let it be added that this is pleasing to God. Defects and sins should be corrected immediately without exaggeration of culpability.

b. When they have become pubescent and have experienced depraved motions in themselves, it seems opportune that the parents themselves prudently and decently explain what the younger legitimately desire to know concerning these matters, lest perhaps they ask this from companions who by depraved counsels and depraved examples can lead them to dishonorable things. To young men let it be said that nocturnal pollution is natural, but is not to be procured lest strength be lost, and that this is prohibited by God. To girls who suffer menstruation let the cause of the phenomenon be explained. But parents will opportunely accommodate their responses to the disposition of the children, not explaining all things at once, but instructing them little by little and by degrees, adding that they are ready to answer their honorable questions whenever they have noticed something unaccustomed. To all, it can rather easily be revealed without inconvenience what the maternal function is, namely procreation from the flesh of the mother, the long time during which not without cares and inconveniences the offspring is borne in the womb, at the end of which it must be brought forth by laborious birth and nourished by maternal milk. For this does not excite the imagination and provides a sufficiently adequate explanation, indeed also confers utility for increasing the affection of piety toward the mother, while the father can be regarded more as head and providence and guardian of mother and offspring. On the contrary, the function of the father in generation itself and conjugal copulation does not seem to be revealed, unless a special opportunity or necessity is given. But if parents fail in this matter, it pertains to teachers and rectors, and if these fail, to the confessor, for young men, to instruct them, not collectively together, but each one privately according to various necessity. Yet all these should place the moral and supernatural aspect in the light, and at the same time propose efficacious remedies for resisting temptations; for knowledge does not suffice for cultivating virtue, but the supernatural motive and the grace of God.

c. When they have become older, for example finishing humanistic studies, or exposed to the dangers of a great city, let them learn all things as to substance, not by collective instruction in schools, which cannot be adapted to the necessities and varieties of individuals, but privately and diversely. Then it will also be opportune to teach them about venereal diseases and the harmful effects of lust. Ignorance concerning a determined point is to be dispelled when, for someone, it is more dangerous or worse than knowledge; on the contrary, if knowledge would harm more, he will generally be left in ignorance.

And so instruction concerning the transmission of life should be done not publicly but privately, not collectively but individually, not at once completely but by degrees:⁴ let it be brief, dignified, and simple, not with apparatus and solemnity, or a form which would suggest less chaste phantasms; nor should it be held merely natural and intellectual, as if the very knowledge of things sufficed for preserving from vice, but it must be first of all moral and supernatural. And let it always be inculcated how well all things have been directed by nature and by the Creator to the end of the creation of souls.

⁴ Conformably to the Provincial Council of Mechlin, n. 56.

Explanations will be opportune which anticipate the revelations of evil counselors; which prevent the soul in the young person from being excessively disturbed by physiological phenomena; which turn the more exposed and more mature away from illicit commerce; which call marriageable girls back from dissipation and dangers; which join parents and children by a stronger bond of confidence and love; which render conscious virtue stronger; and which procure a better understanding of the dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the benefit of the Incarnation.⁵

⁵ Thus Vermeersch, o. c., n. 201.

We do not append a specimen of instruction, because according to diverse circumstances it must be infinitely varied.⁶

⁶ Concerning these things these deserve to be inspected: Knoch, L'Education de la Chastete; Fonsagrives, Conseils aux parents et maitres sur l'education de la purete; Surbled, La Vie de jeune homme; La Vie de jeune fille; La Vie a deux, for spouses; Stahl, What a young boy ought to know; What a young girl ought to know; Ernst, Elternpflicht; Foerster, Jugendlehre; Sexualethik and Sexualpadagogik, translated into Dutch; Lacordaire, Lettres a un jeune homme; Dr Stephane (Lefebvre), Lettres posthumes a un jeune homme; Kraus and Gatterer, Die Erziehung zur Keuschheit; Guibert, La Purete; Gillet, Innocence et Ignorance: education de la purete; P. Guitton, De la Chastete; Francoise Harmel, Une grave question de l'education des jeunes filles. La Chastete; Hardy Schilgen, Im Dienst des Schopfers, translated into Dutch by Dieben; Jos. Konn, Auf dem Wege zur Ehe, for girls; Herman Muckermann, various little works, translated into Dutch by Henri Deshayes; Dr Deelen, Het sexueele in den mensch; and for parents these two, published by Katholische Schulorganisation in Dusseldorf: Die Erziehung des Jungen (des Madchens) zur zittlichen Reinheit; Hoornaert, Le Combat pour la purete; Vermeersch, o. c., n. 186 and following.

V. In the whole of education, however, let the excellence of chastity be extolled, whose special brightness and beauty shines forth in this, that the animal faculties and pleasures most rebellious to reason are subjected to reason (Eccli. XXVI, 19-20; Sap. IV, 1); and its importance shines forth from its necessity for human good. For:

1. it promotes the good of society, which consists in the propagation and good education of the human race. Now the immoderation of libido is what, from weakness of the nerves, renders people weak and impotent; it causes a tyrannical passion which in spouses generates onanism, and in those who have commerce with prostitutes, syphilitic disease. Besides, parents who are addicted to libido are found little apt for educating offspring;

2. it promotes the good of the family. For unless young persons remain chaste and spouses preserve fidelity, there will be no peace in the family. The bridegroom generally intends a virgin; if he finds her already corrupted, there will be place for indignation, which not rarely brings divorce. But if, infected with disease, he contaminates the bride, love is turned into contempt, and nothing will remain except a miserable life, with danger of transmitting syphilitic disease to descendants. When, moreover, adulterous loves or other base things are fostered, dissensions arise, jealousies, quarrels, indeed crimes and suicides. Besides, unless children are instructed chastely, soon they too slip into vice and bring shame together with sadness to their parents. But how will they remain chaste unless chaste education and good example in this matter are provided for them?

3. it contributes very greatly to individual good. In order that man may order his life rightly according to the principles of reason, he must tame the passions. But this passion of lust is especially tyrannical, blinding the mind and so invading, dragging, and absorbing the whole soul that we sacrifice all things to it. Therefore chastity, by which it is subdued, is especially necessary to each one.

When the lower powers, says Saint Thomas,⁷ are vehemently affected toward their objects, the higher powers are impeded in their acts and disordered. Through the vice of lust the lower appetite is especially intent upon its object. Therefore the higher powers are disordered through lust. Hence in the intellect there arise: blindness of mind, precipitation, inconsideration, inconstancy; in the will: love of self as to the pleasure of concupiscence which it inordinately desires, hatred of God forbidding the pleasure of concupiscence, affection for the present age in which it rejoices in pleasure, and despair of the future age, because while it is too much detained by carnal pleasures, it disdains spiritual ones. "The animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God."⁸

⁷ II-II, q. 153, a. 5.

⁸ I Cor. II, 14.

Nor are those to be heard who say that chastity in every way harms, and advise pollution or sometimes fornication, asserting that semen sometimes must be poured out for the sake of health. This is wholly false: for part of the semen is reabsorbed in the body, which it strengthens and renders firmer in vigor; another part is naturally poured out in sleep without any disturbance of the nerves.⁹ Nor is atrophy of the genital organs to be feared from the fact that we do not use them; for without any effort they unceasingly continue to secrete semen, nor do they ever lose their function except by chance accident.

⁹ Hence Dr Forel: "The man who cannot procure for himself a normal state ought to be content with nocturnal pollutions, and the woman with voluptuous dreams, both abstaining from active and voluntary excitations," La Question sexuelle, p. 251. Compare Dr A. Scremin, La purita non e dannosa alla salute, testimonianza di medici.

VI. Let the confessor use the greatest prudence in the direction of penitents, lest he be a scandal to them. This could happen in two ways: either a. by teaching a mode of perpetrating sins unknown to the penitents; or b. by proposing useless questions, from which penitents would judge the confessor to be too curious or too versed in those things. For thus confession would become hateful if it were an occasion of scandal or temptation. Hence theologians hold the principle: in these matters it is better to be deficient than to abound.

In particular:

1. in questioning, all things are to be avoided which can probably scandalize the penitent. The material integrity of confession is prescribed only by positive divine law, while scandal must be avoided by natural law. Hence the first prescription of confessing integrally ceases to oblige when scandal is feared. Hence:

a. First of all, let the confessor permit the penitent to declare that by which his conscience is burdened, promising, however, if it seems necessary, that afterwards he will help him.

b. As to the impubescent, it suffices to ask whether and how often they have heard, said, or done anything against modesty, decency, purity: whether alone or with others. He would act imprudently if he inquired concerning the mode by which the sin was committed, whether with hands employed or in another mode. Nor should he begin speech concerning the effect or concerning complete pleasure. It is better to suggest that those actions, which they would blush to perpetrate before their parents, are seen by God from whom nothing is hidden, are very displeasing to him, and are punished by him even in this life, but especially in the other; besides, how one must act in temptations is to be told to them.

c. As to younger pubescent persons who are beginning sexual life and therefore are ignorant of several things concerning it: if they say that they have dishonorably touched themselves, not from necessity but because of pleasure, ordinarily it can be inferred, without a further question, that pollution was committed. Wherefore boys are not to be asked whether they have experienced some effect or have procured for themselves an emission of humor or semen, which could excite their curiosity; similarly girls are not to be asked whether they have suffered a certain distillation. Rather, only whether they have experienced dishonorable motions with pleasure and have fully consented to them or voluntarily admitted them, without inquiring concerning the mode; in which case the greatest horror of this offense should be instilled into them. As to the pubescent who are altogether developed or who certainly are sufficiently instructed, as also as to adults, one can ask: of males, concerning effusion of semen, for example concerning the evil effect that followed; of girls, concerning complete satisfaction procured, whether they satisfied themselves, whether they fulfilled passion.

d. Those who confess immodest touches upon their own body can be asked whether the touches were necessary; if they deny this, whether they were lasting or lingering; if they deny this, nothing further is to be inquired; if they affirm it, one must inquire further concerning pleasure, and if they are sufficiently developed, also concerning the complete act, as was said under c.

e. On the contrary, those polluting themselves are to be questioned also concerning immodest touches separated from pollution, and are to be warned that they are mortal sins by reason of the proximate danger of exciting or seeking venereal pleasure.

f. When they accuse certain external lustful acts, saying nothing concerning thoughts or desires, one must ask from them whether beforehand they voluntarily thought of or desired to commit those acts, whether they wished to perpetrate other acts, whether they desired something base and what it was, and it should be said to them that this is mortal sin. On the contrary, some accuse depraved thoughts, while they do not dare to declare external acts. These can be asked whether they gave consent to those imaginings not only internally, but by some exterior act, for example whether they had depraved sensations and consented to them. For adults, if they accuse themselves of having sinned against chastity, it is often better, in questioning, to begin from graver things, especially if they are more uneducated; for others one should begin from lesser things.

g. If an evolved penitent accuses dishonorable familiarities with companions, it must be asked whether with persons of the same or the other sex. If with persons of the same sex, whether up to pollution, if it concerns males; up to full pleasure, if it concerns females; whether they did anything more base. If with a person of the other sex, whether they attempted what spouses do, or altogether consummated the evil action; in this case one must ask concerning the effect that followed or did not follow, and concerning the cause of its not following. Afterwards one can ask concerning the quality of the person, so that it may be known whether adultery, incest, sacrilege was committed.

If the sin was not consummated, one must ask concerning touches, looks, kisses, and so forth. But if the penitent is guilty of only light pleasure, let the confessor say that in this matter there is always danger of passing to graver things, and let him warn prudence. And if the penitent accuses himself of having exposed himself to danger, or of having had carnal motions, one must ask concerning the cause and concerning necessity.

h. As to those habituated, let the confessor explore from what time they have been addicted to this vice, their bodily temperament, the circumstances of the sins, namely at what time, in what place, on what occasion, in what circumstances of things the fall is accustomed to occur, even if they institute confession with someone for the first time. Care must be taken that they always return to the same confessor, and institute confession soon after the fall; let them pray daily to obtain chastity and emit or renew a firm resolution.

i. Finally, for judging the gravity of this sin, it can be asked of the penitent, which would not be so valid for other sins: whether he judges that he has sinned gravely.

2. As to instruction: ordinarily those who commit a sin of lust from ignorance are to be instructed, because ignorance is harmful to them or to others, at least by generating a vicious habit.

3. In judging sins, one must proceed cautiously: for rash condemnation leads the penitent to despair, improvident hesitation to anxiety, and inconsiderate excusing to ruinous audacity. Therefore let the confessor quiet the anxious and scrupulous by firm responses; but let him generally induce others to proceed by the safer way with paternal severity, so that he shows benevolence toward persons but wards off all rashness in actions. He will usefully provide these counsels to the penitent:

a. that he flee whatever things are strange and unaccustomed in these matters;

b. that if there is a grave cause of seeing, reading, handling, touching something, he preserve a simple and secure mode of acting, not an anxious one;

c. that except for a just cause he do nothing and avoid specious pretexts;

d. that in necessary actions he study to avoid a less pure affection and motions of the flesh;

e. that he always proceed with perfect sincerity and strength of soul;

f. that he be mindful of human and Christian dignity, and foster more sublime pursuits.

4. In judging the dispositions of the penitent, the confessor must carefully attend lest he immediately, from the frequency of relapses, accuse the penitent of a depraved disposition of will. Let him examine attentively whether the relapses have as their cause malice, corruption, affection toward sin, lack of firm resolution, or on the contrary only the frailty of the penitent and the violence of temptation. No one fails to see that one must act with the penitent in one way or another according to the case. In the first case, after some warnings and exhortations, absolution is generally to be deferred, according to the rules which are handed down concerning the relapsed; but in the last case, the more frequent one, not only is absolution to be given, but with the greatest affection of heart and industry of soul the confessor will sustain those poor souls.

5. Absolution is never to be denied or deferred to these last penitents unless they are certainly indisposed or the confessor knows that a brief delay of absolution will turn to the good of the penitent.

6. As to sacramental satisfactions, especially in the present case let them be medicinal, for example daily morning and evening to elicit an act of contrition and firm resolution, not in any sort of way, but in a reflective and plainly deliberate mode; to approach Holy Communion frequently; attentively sometimes to recollect the Passion of Christ, the presence of God in temptation, and so forth. It is best to exhort the penitent earnestly that after a relapse he approach the sacrament of Penance without delay, and that he impose upon himself a salutary penance, such as, for example, flight from occasions, to which moreover by another law he is already bound.

VII. For a better understanding of sins against nature, a few things must be treated concerning abnormal sexual appetite, which deflects from the common norm; here there come to be considered: a. hypersexuality; b. sexual perversion.

Concerning hypersexuality Noldin notes, o. c., n. 46:

"1. Sensual affection in different men, as far as vehemence is concerned, is diverse; in men it is more vehement than in women. But even among persons of the same sex, some have obtained one more vehement than others; sometimes it reaches an extraordinarily great vehemence. A sexual appetite of this kind, more vehement, is found both in those who labor under a psychic defect, and in those who are not psychopathic.

"2. The cause of this matter is partly a disposition acquired by heredity, partly an illness of the nerves, partly abuse of alcoholic drink. There accede sexual excesses, which increase both the illness of the soul and the sexual affection; for repeated excesses generate a depraved habit, which sometimes grows so enormously that libido is excited from any, even the slightest, cause, and then almost mechanically, by physical necessity, drives to pollution.

"3. The signs from which it is known that sexual appetite has been increased beyond measure, pathologically, are these: if libido, scarcely satisfied, is soon excited again; if libido is excited from the sight of things indifferent in the genus of lust; if sexual affection so occupies a man that he thinks and speaks almost only of this matter and seeks means of satisfying the affection.

"Now: a. those who are of sound mind can and must repress and moderate sexual affection, even a more vehement one, nor do they suffer any injury to health from the fact that they do not satisfy sexual appetite, even the most vehement. Therefore sins committed against chastity are fully imputable to them.

"b. Indeed even those who labor under psychic defect sin voluntarily and culpably, unless the defect is of a greater degree. Namely, sexual excesses will be less voluntary and culpable the greater and more intense the illness of soul is.

"c. They are fully involuntary for those who are sick in mind or fully psychopathic."

VIII. Concerning sexual perversion, Noldin takes the following from Capellmann-Bergmann, o. c., n. 47:

"1. Sexual perversion consists in this, that the sexual appetite and sexual actions are abnormal in this, that libido is excited not by internal and external acts pertaining to venereal matters, as ordinarily happens, but by others altogether foreign to sexual life.

"2. It can indeed happen that a sexual disposition, at the beginning not alien from the common norm, has been made abnormal by sins of lust against nature committed for a long time; ordinarily, however, the abnormal disposition has been transmitted by heredity from the parents, together with a morbid affection of the nervous system.

"3. Four diverse forms of perverse sexual disposition are distinguished: sadism, masochism, fetishism, contrary sexuality.

"a. Sadism is so called if venereal pleasure is excited by imaginings which contain cruelty and violence, of which kind are: to strangle, to prick with a knife, to strike, to scourge, to slaughter, lust-murder.¹⁰

¹⁰ The name is drawn from the Marquis de Sade, who was affected by this perversity and exhibits, as it were, its prototype.

"These actions are not carried out to obtain copulation from the person to whom force is inflicted, but to excite and quiet and fulfill libido through them. This perversion is frequently found in men, scarcely ever in women; for since the man in sexual life is the active and, if it is permitted so to speak, aggressive principle, it seems to have arisen from the degeneration of the office which in sexual functions naturally belongs to the man.

"b. Masochism is so called if venereal pleasure is excited by this, that someone suffers violence and torments, of which kind are to be struck, kicked, beaten, scourged, pricked even to the effusion of blood, and so forth.¹¹

¹¹ The name is taken from Sacher-Masoch, who especially describes this perversion in his fictitious narratives, Romans.

"This perversion is found especially in women, which is easily understood from the things said above, since the woman bears herself more passively in sexual functions. They do not indeed lack the sense of pain while they suffer force, but by the sense of venereal pleasure the pain is abundantly compensated.

"c. Fetishism is so called if libido is excited by imaginings or actions which do not pertain to venereal things and therefore otherwise are not apt to excite pleasure.

"The things or parts of the body whose imagining or handling excites venereal feeling are the hand, foot, eye, hair, garment, shoes, feathers, cloths, rags, and so forth. For the most part these things or parts of the body have relation to a determinate person loved with inordinate affection; but it can happen that, even independently from relation to a certain person, they provoke venereal pleasure and pollution.

"d. Contrary sexuality, or homosexuality, is so called if sexual appetite tends toward a person of the same sex. Venereal feeling therefore is provoked not from the imagining, sight, or touch of a person of different sex, but of the same sex.

"The sins which are committed by those who labor under this perversion are pollutions provoked by touches and sodomitical concubituses. If the perverse inclination is borne toward boys, it is called pederasty; ordinarily, however, it tends toward men. This perversion is also found in women, in whom it is called Lesbian or Sapphic love and induces to mutual pollutions and sodomitical sins which women commit among themselves.

"Now: a. Sexual perversion is not a sign of a sick mind: perversions are also found in those who labor under no psychic defect. Yet this seems able to be affirmed, that perversions are more frequently had in men of sick mind than of sound mind.

"b. Not only those who are of sound mind but also those who labor under psychic defect can repress perverse sexual appetites; and therefore sins, or perversities, are imputable to them, unless the psychic defect has reached a greater degree. It becomes ineluctable when to psychic defect there accedes a great vehemence of sexual appetite, whether ordinary or perverse....

"Note: the confessor ought to know that certain traces of perverse sexual disposition are sometimes found even in those whose sexual life otherwise does not depart from the common norm. For not a few are met who are basely excited by imaginings or actions which scarcely refer at all to venereal matters, as by the chastisement of boys represented by imagination, by reading of the torments which the martyrs suffered, by the imagining or touch of hair gathered into a knot, and so forth. Against temptations arisen from imaginings or actions of this kind they must fight equally as against other temptations attacking chastity. Those whose sexual perversion is perfect are excited only by abnormal means, but by base means not at all or only a little."

"The greatest attention must be employed in choosing foods; the manner of alimentation ought to consist in tonic foods, least of all exciting. According to Doctor Fournier all who must be corrected of this vice ought to use light foods and those of easy digestion, those which in small volume contain sufficient force of nutrition, namely eggs, milk, tender and roasted meats, birds, light fish, tender roots, chicory; they ought to avoid acrid and irritating foods, starchy foods which dilate the intestines, fruits which weaken and burden the stomach, and swine meats. In the evening it would be better to abstain from meats; chocolate is not good since it is too nourishing, nor do crustaceans help, since they are excitants of the nervous system. Likewise alcoholic drinks, very alcoholic wines, beer, tea, and so forth, are forbidden. The best drink is water mixed with old wine. Likewise garments ought not be too warming, nor compress the genitals.

"But if all these things do not suffice, some medicines must be attended to, such as potassium bromide and especially camphor, lupulin, and so forth; hydrated chloral for insomnia.

"Sometimes besides it happens that all these things profit nothing, because of disease of the brain or spinal marrow, by which boys and girls unknowingly devote themselves to masturbation. Then mechanical means are to be employed. There are very many of these; but those judged of better effect are: the use of a garment which joins the arms and retains them before the chest; a binding in like manner of the hands to the neck so that they can never touch the genitals; the use of gloves made from metal for the hands, and of some apparatuses, likewise made from metal or caoutchouc, which are of various form according as they serve boys or girls, which are applied to the genitals day and night, and which have often brought very good effects.

"But if all these things still do not suffice for tearing out the lethal vice, one must have recourse to amputation of the clitoral organ, clitoridectomy, in women even adult. This operation is very easy and altogether harmless.... But if, the clitoral organ having been removed, masturbation of the external pudenda is substituted, then it is necessary to carry out cauterization of the internal face of the external pudendum, because any attempt in these parts excites pains which impede masturbation." Compare also Debreyne, Moechialogie, p. 53-61.