neuropathic women, the excitement may reach a pathological degree. The great libido of consumptives is remarkable. Hofmann tells of a consumptive peasant who satisfied his wife sexually on the evening before his death. The sexual acts are coitus (eventually rape) and, _faute de mieux_, masturbation; and, with defective moral sense, pederasty or bestiality. If sexual power is diminished or extinct, with excessive sexual desire, all manner of perversity of sexual acts becomes possible. Excessive libido may be peripherally or centrally induced. The former manner of origin is the more infrequent. Pruritus and eczema of the genitals may cause it; and likewise certain substances, like cantharides, which powerfully stimulate sexual desire. Not infrequently, in women at the climacteric, sexual excitement occurs, occasioned by pruritus; and also in cases where there is neuropathic taint. Magnan (_Annales médico-psychol._, 1885, p. 157) reports the case of a lady who was afflicted mornings with attacks of frightful erethismus genitalis, and the case of a man, aged 55, who was tormented at night by unbearable priapism. In each case there was a neurosis. The central origin of sexual excitement is of frequent occurrence[39] in persons having neurotic taint or hysteria, and in conditions of psychical exaltation. Here, where the cortex and the psycho-sexual centre are in a condition of hyperæsthesia (abnormal excitability of the imagination, increased ease of association), not only visual and tactile impressions, but also auditory and olfactory sensations, may be sufficient to call up lascivious concepts. Magnan (_op. cit._) reports the case of a young woman who had an increasing sexual desire from puberty, and satisfied it by masturbation. Gradually she grew to become sexually excited at the sight of any man pleasing to her; and, since she was unable to control herself, she would sometimes shut herself up in a room until the storm had passed. At last she gave herself up to men of her choice, that she might get rest from her tormenting desire; but neither coitus nor masturbation brought relief, and she went to an asylum. The case of a mother of five children is added, who, in despair about her inordinate sexual impulse, attempted suicide, and then sought an asylum. There her condition improved, but she never trusted herself to leave it. There are several illustrative cases in men and women in the author’s article, “On Certain Anomalies of Sexual Instinct,” Cases 6 and 7 (_Archiv für Psychiatrie_, vii, 2); Cases 3 and 5 are given here.