James G. Kiernan, "Sexual Perversion, and the Whitechapel Murders" (1888)

[Chris]

This paper from the Chicago Medical Standard, vol. 4 (1888), was quite frequently cited in contemporary coverage of the case. It is quite interesting in its way, although anyone expecting to find anything in it about the Whitechapel Murders will be disappointed. Note that it is definitely not for the squeamish!

[Ginny_Kidney]

Thanks for posting this. Interesting use of the word "barnacle"!

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Dr. James G. Kiernan was a distinguished Chicago neurologist and an expert on sexuality (he was the first American medical writer to use the term “homosexual” in a published article). He was the Managing Editor of the Chicago Medical Review and the Medical Standard and appeared, along with Dr. Edward C. Spitzka, another American medical man interested in the Whitechapel Murders, as one of the medical experts for the defence of Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield. Kiernan was also interviewed by a Chicago paper in October, 1888, about the murders and his thoughts were reprinted elsewhere (see The New York Daily Graphic, 4 October, or The Atlanta Constitution, 5 October, 1888, for example). The good doctor once famously declared that 20% of the population was insane.

Wolf.