It has been remarked by Professor Wilhelm Ostwald that the problem ofhomosexuality is a problem left over to us by the Middle Ages, which forfive hundred years dealt with inverts as it dealt with heretics andwitches. To regard the matter thus is to emphasize its social andhumanitarian interest rather than its biological and psychologicalsignificance. It is no doubt this human interest of the question ofinversion, rather than its scientific importance, great as the latter is,which is mainly responsible for the remarkable activity with which thestudy of homosexuality has been carried on during recent years.
The result has been that, during the fourteen years that have passed sincethe last edition of this Study was issued, so vast an amount of work hasbeen carried on in this field that the preparation of a new edition of thebook has been a long and serious task. Nearly every page has beenrewritten or enlarged and the Index of Authors consulted has more thandoubled in length. The original portions of the book have been still morechanged; sixteen new Histories have been added, selected from others in mypossession as being varied, typical, and full.
These extensive additions to the volume have rendered necessary variousomissions. Many of the shorter and less instructive Histories contained inearlier editions have been omitted, as well as three Appendices which nolonger seem of sufficient interest to retain. In order to avoid undueincrease in the size of this volume, already much larger than in theprevious editions, a new Study of Eonism, or sexo-esthetic inversion, willbe inserted in vol. v, where it will perhaps be at least as much in placeas here.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
It was not my intention to publish a study of an abnormal manifestation ofthe sexual instinct before discussing its normal manifestations. It hashappened, however, that this part of my work is ready first, and, since Ithus gain a longer period to develop the central part of my subject, I donot regret the change of plan.
I had not at first proposed to devote a whole volume to sexual inversion.It may even be that I was inclined to slur it over as an unpleasantsubject, and one that it was not wise to enlarge on. But I found in timethat several persons for whom I felt respect and admiration were thecongenital subjects of this abnormality. At the same time I realized thatin England, more than in any other country, the law and public opinioncombine to place a heavy penal burden and a severe social stigma on themanifestations of an instinct which to those persons who possess itfrequently appears natural and normal. It was clear, therefore, that thematter was in special need of elucidation and discussion.
There can be no doubt that a peculiar amount of ignorance exists regardingthe subject of sexual inversion. I know medical men of many years' generalexperience who have never, to their knowledge, come across a single case.We may remember, indeed, that some fifteen years ago the total number ofcases recorded in scientific literature scarcely equaled those of Britishrace which I have obtained, and that before my first cases were publishednot a single British case, unconnected with the asylum or the prison, hadever been recorded. Probably not a very large num