There is one motive for the existence of coprolagnia which must not be passed over, because it has doubtless frequently served as a mode of transition to what, taken by itself, may well seem the least aesthetically attractive of erotic symbols.  I refer to the tendency of the nates to become a sexual fetich.  The nates have in all ages and in all parts of the world been frequently regarded as one of the most aesthetically beautiful parts of the feminine body.[31] It is probable that on the basis of this entirely normal attraction more than one form of erotic symbolism is at all events in part supported.  Duehren and others have considered that the aesthetic charm of the nates is one of the motives which prompt the desire to inflict flagellation on women.  In the same way—­certainly in some and probably in many cases—­the sexual charm of the nates progressively extends to the anal region, to the act of defecation, and finally to the feces.

In a case of Krafft-Ebing’s (Op. cit., p. 183) the subject, when a child of 6, accidentally placed his hand in contact with the nates of the little girl who sat next to him in school, and experienced so great a pleasure in this contact that he frequently repeated it; when he was 10 a nursery governess, to gratify her own desires, placed his finger in her vagina; in adult life he developed urolagnic tendencies.

In a case of Moll’s the development of a youthful admiration for the nates in a coprolagnic direction may be clearly traced.  In this case a young man, a merchant, in a good position, sought to come in contact with women defecating; and with this object would seek to conceal himself in closets; the excretal odor was pleasurable to him, but was not essential to gratification, and the sight of the nates was also exciting and at the same time not essential to gratification; the act of defecation appears, however, to have been regarded as essential.  He never sought to witness prostitutes in this situation; he was only attracted to young, pretty and innocent women.  The coprolagnia here, however, had its source in a childish impression of admiration for the nates.  When 5 or 6 years old he crawled under the clothes of a servant girl, his face coming in contact with her nates, an impression that remained associated in his mind with pleasure.  Three or four years later he used to experience much pleasure when a young girl cousin sat on his face; thus was strengthened an association which developed naturally into coprolagnia. (Moll, Untersuchungen ueber die Libido Sexualis, bd. i, p. 837.)

It is scarcely necessary to remark that an admiration for the nates, even when reaching a fetichistic degree, by no means necessarily involves, even after many years, any attraction to the excreta.  A correspondent for whom the nates have constituted a fetich for many years writes:  “I find my craving for women with profuse pelvic or posterior development is growing