His mother dressed him in girls’ clothes until he became a large-sized boy, and when she attempted to put him into boys’ clothes, he would kick and scream. Since that time, when opportunity presented itself, he would masquerade in female garb. There seems to be a peculiar fascination and pleasure to him when dressed in the clothes of the opposite sex. A sort of an irresistible impulse comes over him at times, and he cannot extricate himself. He can control his thoughts better, write and seemingly work better when dressed in skirts, and he is more contented. His sexual organs are fully developed and do not differ from any other male organs. A number of years previously he was strong sexually and fond of the opposite sex. Nowadays he cares more for his own sex. Men look more attractive to him than women do. “It seems strange,” writes the patient, “but I think all female impersonators learn to have an abhorrence for the female sex, even a hatred in the course of time.” “Dear Miss S., as you and Maude (by the way, S. and Maude are both men) are in the same boat, I am free to tell all these things. I am pleased to find one who thinks as I do. The common herd does not understand me.”[BG] This case throws a certain light upon the psyche of the woman impersonators. They do not become effeminate through the long habit of masquerading—that would be confounding cause and effect—but their innate anomaly leads them to choose impersonating as a profession. A normal man would hardly select such a profession as his life work. The following case is that of a gentleman, aged thirty-six years, an artist painter who is about to marry. In his letter to a transvestite friend he protests against the insinuation of homosexualism. He writes as follows: “The reason why I did not answer before is because it seems to me that our views on the matter mentioned are very diverging. As far as I can judge from your letter, it looks as if you consider man’s love for dressing in female clothes equal to homosexualism. I can tell you that homosexualism has always been an abhorrence to me, and that the sole reason for my desire to wear gowns is purely feminine love for what is beautiful and picturesque. In my relations to the other sex, I am just as normal as any other man.” The longings for cross-dressing in our cases may be best explained, that the feminine strain, normally found in every male, exists here in a greatly exaggerated form. Every normal woman attributes an exaggerated value to clothes and, Narcissus-like, is more or less enamored with the female body.[BH] The same exaggerated value to female clothes is attributed by the male transvestites. The female transvestite, on the other hand, thinks of clothes more or less as men do. Yet, the male strain in her, being a morbid phenomenon, dressing is of more importance to her than it is to the normal man. [Illustration: CUT XLVII.