I must here point out that when we have succeeded in removing by suggestion a perversion based in whole or in part on organic or hereditary causes, this result is always more or less precarious, and does not give the physician the right to give his sanction to marriage. The following case shows us what prudence on the part of the hypnotizer can do with patients of this kind: A young girl, of good education, was troubled with intense sexual desire. She was incapable of resisting masturbation and dreamed at night that men and animals were in contact with her vulva. These dreams caused intense excitement and were accompanied by orgasms. The treatment of a patient of this kind by suggestion was no easy matter. However, with the aid of a local sedative, the action of which it is needless to say was purely suggestive and was combined with appropriate verbal suggestions, I succeeded not only in suppressing the onanism, but also in almost completely curing the nervous exhaustion of this young girl, so that she was afterwards able to resume work. I may add that the patient was hypnotized in the presence of others, which can always be done in such cases with a little tact. This is a rule from which the physician should never depart. I cannot enter into more details on this subject, but what I have said will suffice to draw the attention of my readers to the action of suggestion in the sexual appetite and in love. CHAPTER X THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO MONEY AND PROPERTY PROSTITUTION, PROXENETISM AND VENAL CONCUBINAGE GENERAL REMARKS In Chapter VI we have studied the historical development of human marriage as a continuation of the phylogeny of our species, and we have shown that marriage by purchase and different forms of polygamy constitute a kind of intermediate stage and at the same time an aberration of civilization, which has resulted from the association of men, combined with the birth of individual property. When we consider a being of high mentality and deeply rooted individualism such as man, in whom the instinct of love and family are so strong, led by the inevitable force of circumstances to live in the society of his fellows, we can easily understand that certain individuals of a higher mentality than the others will endeavor to dominate the weaker and less intelligent, and exploit them for their own profit and that of their family. Analogous tendencies are seen in certain animals. Among the bees the old workers appropriate the produce of the work of others. Certain ants practice a form of slavery, based, it is true on instinct, in stealing the pupæ of weaker species which, after hatching, become the servants of the idle robbers.