(c) The Fetich is Some Special Material.—There is a third principal group of fetichists who have as a fetich neither a portion of the female body nor a part of female attire, but some particular material which is so used, not because it is a material for female garments, but because in itself it can arouse or increase sexual feelings. In many cases of this kind, the act of feeling of such material during the sexual act seems indispensable, in order to make the latter possible, or at least satisfactory. Such materials are furs, velvet, and silk.
These cases differ from the foregoing instances of erotic dress-fetichism, in that these materials, unlike female linen, do not have any close relation to the female body; and, unlike shoes and gloves, they are not related to certain parts of the person which have peculiar symbolic significance. Moreover, this fetichism cannot be due to an accidental association, like that in the cases of the night-caps and the arrangement of the sleeping-room; for these cases form an entire group having the same object. It must be presumed that certain tactile sensations (a kind of tickling which stands in some distant relation to lustful sensations?), in hyperæsthetic individuals, furnish the occasion for the origin of this fetichism.
The following is a personal observation of a man affected with this peculiar fetichism:—