has been recorded by Belletrud and Mercier, said: "I could find no
young girl who would agree to yield to my desires; that is why I have
done this. I should have preferred to have relations with living persons.
I found it quite natural to do what I did : I saw no harm in it, and I
did not think that any one else could. As living women felt nothing but
repulsion for me, it was quite natural I should turn to the dead, who
have never repulsed me. I used to say tender things to them like 'my
beautiful, my love, I love you.' " (Belletrud and Mereier "Perversion de
rinstinct Gengsique," Annates d'Hygiine Publique, June, 1903.) But
when so highly abnormal an act is felt as natural we are dealing with a
person who is eongenitally defective so far as the finer developments
of intelligence are concerned. It was so in this case of neerophily; he
was the son of a weak-minded woman of unrestrainable sexual inclina-
tions, and was himself somewhat feeble-minded; he was also, it is instruc-
tive to observe, anosmie.
