In Kiernan’s case the patient would hack herself all over her body with any instrument she could conveniently lay her hands on, not for suicidal purposes, but because she experienced a fascinating pleasure whenever she drew blood. Here is a case of pleasure in cruelty, directed against the patient’s own person. _Fetichism._—The word fetichism denotes the condition in which an object by virtue of association with sentiment, personality, or ideas exerts a charm. Erotic fetichism makes an idol of physical or mental qualities of an individual of the other sex or even of objects used by this individual. Erotic fetichism is physiologic in nature. Hence pathologic fetichism is generally, like masochism and sadism, not so easily diagnosed. Sometimes it is almost impossible to define sharply the beginning of the perversion. Fetichism of a considerable high degree is found in normal love as well. The preference for some particular physical or psychical characteristic in a person of the opposite sex is not pathological. The breasts and hips of a woman are not seldom made the object of a fetich, still this fact does not denote pathological fetichism. One man may be charmed by the sweet voice of his beloved, another man is raving over her soft blond hair. Some man is enchanted by the delicate white arm, another is enraptured at the sight of her dainty foot, or is fascinated by the fairy-like nimble gait of his girl and sobs out of excitement when inhaling the sweet odor of her hair. Many a girl becomes extremely excited when kissed by mustached and bearded lips, while a smooth face leaves her cold. Another girl is thrilled when looking into the serious, thoughtful eyes of a man. Hence the enthusiasm extended to certain portions of the body or to articles of attire, still lies within the limits of physiological fetichism, if the awakened powerful emotions are associated with a certain beloved person. When the royal singer in the Bible (Solomon’s Song, chap. 4) extols the dove’s eyes of his bride and praises her comely speech, when he compares her hair to a flock of goats, her teeth to a flock of shorn sheep, her lips to a thread of scarlet, her temples to a piece of pomegranate, her neck to the tower of David, and her two breasts to two young twin roes; when he tells us that milk and honey lie under her tongue and that the smell of her garment is like the smell of the Lebanon, no one would declare him for that reason a degenerate fetichist. The sweet, red, coral-like, quivering, laughing lips of the mother of the human race have been extolled in verse and prose since the dawn of history.