As to the influence which suggestion exercises m this connection, there can hardly be a doubt that in most cases of so-called seduction, the moving principle may be found rather in the revelation of a congenitally inverted nature, than in external influences. If the contrary were true, men and women would practice indiscriminately the vices revealed to them; whereas few do so; the perverted idea always assuming such definite lines as to indicate a preexisting congenital impulse; or, as F6re' properly says,* when "an invert acquires, under the influence of external conditions, it is because he was born with an aptitude for such acquisition, an aptitude lacking in those who have been subjected to the same conditions, without making the same acquisitions."

In support of this view Leppmann mentions the case of a little girl of eight, who used to spend her nights hidden on the roof, merely to see the sexual organs of a male cousin, when he performed his morning toilette;1 and it is well known that many children who manifested pleasure in handling the genitalia of other children, while young, grew up, nevertheless, into perfectly normal adults. The seed of suggestion is only prolific in a suitable soil; its influences in other cases, though temporarily strong, usually disappearing in the presence of later normal stimuli.