We may also find it to a considerable extent among tramps,
an allied class of undoubted degenerates, who, save for brief seasons, are
less familiar with prison life. I am able to bring forward interesting
evidence on this point by an acute observer who lived much among tramps in
various countries, and largely devoted himself to the study of them.[48]
The fact that homosexuality is especially common among men of exceptional
intellect was long since noted by Dante:--
"In somma sappi, che tutti fur cherci
E litterati grandi, et di gran fama
D'un medismo peccato al mondo lerci."[49]
It has often been noted since and remains a remarkable fact.
There cannot be the slightest doubt that intellectual and
artistic abilities of the highest order have frequently been
associated with a congenitally inverted sexual temperament. There
has been a tendency among inverts themselves to discover their
own temperament in many distinguished persons on evidence of the
most slender character. But it remains a demonstrable fact that
numerous highly distinguished persons, of the past and the
present, in various countries, have been inverts.
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