in general, and the partiality which this sensitive man sometimes showed even for domestic animals,—where no one would think of sodomy. With S.'s mental character, extraordinary friendship for the youth G. may be easily comprehended. The openness of this friendship permits the conclusion that it was innocent, much rather than that it depended upon sensual passion.
The defendants succeeded in obtaining a new trial. The new trial took place on March 7, 1890. There was much evidence presented in favor of the accused.
The previous moral life of S. was generally acknowledged. The Sister of Charity who cared for G. in S.'s house, never noticed anything suspicious in the intercourse between S. and G. S.'s former friends testified to his morality, his deep friendship, and his habit of kissing them on meeting or leaving them. The anal abnormalities previously found on G. were no longer present. Experts called by the court allowed the possibility that they had been due simply to digital manipulations; their diagnostic value in any case was contested by the experts called by the defense.
The court recognized that the imputed crime had not been proved, and exonerated the defendants.
Lesbian Love.[1]
Where the sexual intercourse is between adults, its legal importance is very slight; it could come into consideration only in Austria. In connection with urningism, this phenomenon is of anthropological and clinical value. The relation is the same, mutatis mutandis, as between men. Lesbian love does not seem to approach urningism in frequency. The majority of female urnings do not act in obedience to an innate impulse, but they are developed under conditions analogous to those which produce the urning by cultivation.
These "forbidden friendships" flourish especially in penal institutions for females.
Kraussold (op. cit.) reports: "The female prisoners often have such friendships, which, when possible, extend to mutual manustupration.
"But temporary manual gratification is not the only purpose of such friendships. They are made to be enduring,—entered into systematically, so to speak,—and intense jealousy and a passion for love are- ↑ Comp. Mayer, Friedreich's Blätter, 1875, p. 41. — Kraussold, Melancholic und Schuld, 1884, p. 20. — Andronico, Archiv di psich. scienze penali ed anthropol. crim., vol. iii, p. 145.
