This method of dealing with unnatural offenses has spread widely, at first
because of the political influence of France, and more recently because
such an attitude has commended itself on its merits. In Belgium the law is
similar to that of the _Code Napoleon_, as it is also in Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Roumania, Japan, and numerous South American lands. In
Switzerland the law is a little vague and varies slightly in the different
cantons, but it is not severe; in Geneva and some other cantons there is
no penalty; the general tendency is to inflict brief imprisonment when
serious complaints have been lodged, and cases can sometimes be settled
privately by the magistrate.
The only large European countries in which homosexuality _per se_ remains
a penal offense appear to be Germany, Austria, Russia, and England. In
several of the German States, such as Bavaria and Hanover, simple
homosexuality formerly went unpunished, but when the laws of Prussia were
in 1871 applied to the new German Empire this ceased to be the case, and
unnatural carnality between males became an offense against the law.
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