When man has attained his perfect development, the bonds which unite the genital organs to the rest of the body become less apparent and probably less intimate than before: they however are not destroyed. Castration certainly does not deprive the adult of all the characters, of all the faculties which had been developed by puberty: but it modifies them very much. The beard has been known to come out after the loss of the testes as if its existence were connected with theirs, as an effect is with its cause. The intellectual faculties particularly lose much of their energy, when the genital organs are removed. Those persons who have been mutilated not unfrequently become melancholy and finally commit suicide. (Orfila, Leçons de medicine legale, 1823, p. 126.) A remarkable case of enervation was observed by Richerand, in some soldiers whose testes had been shot away in action. Among other cases, he mentions a soldier who had previously been celebrated for his activity and valor, and who, after his mutilation took an aversion to any violent exercise, and to gain his livelihood, applied himself to such labours as are carried on by females, particularly to sewing gloves. (Richerand, nosographie chirurgicale, 2nd edition, vol. iv. p. 292.) Compare these facts with what takes place when age, that great operator, extinguishes the principle of virility. When one is old, is he as affectionate, as sensible, as devoted, as intelligent, as he was in youth? do not the general characters of an eunuch gradually come upon him? The genital organs then, even when in repose, regulate in more than one respect and at every period of life, the rest of the human body.
But it is particularly before and during puberty that these organs deserve the most serious attention, for then they possess the most power. This power commences with them, and like them increases every day. Thus the tastes, the characters, the inclinations, and generally all which distinguishes the sexes in a moral and physical point of view, are marked from infancy. That poverty of body of heart and of spirit which characterizes eunuchism, is seen in young eunuchs, in those for instance who are born destitute of genital organs. The soldier whose case is stated by Bedor, always presented that indifference and languor common to eunuchs; he always avoided all trials of skill at wrestling, running, leaping and finally all youthful exercises, and as we have already remarked, never exhibited attachment to any one, even to his parents. The influence of the sexual organs then commences with life. But it does not attain all its intensity until puberty.
At this period, which in our climate commences from the twelfth to the sixteenth year, a little sooner in females than in males, the genital organs have the most vitality. Until that time they are developed slowly and almost imperceptibly; they suddenly increase with great activity, and their growth is not arrested till they have arrived at perfection. This is not the place to enter into details as to the labour which then takes place in them: we will merely remark that the change is often so intense as to present all the characters of inflammation. It is then admissible that in such a state these organs should exercise on the economy a much more powerful action than before, when their development was imperceptible, and also than they do afterward, when they have only to preserve themselves. This in fact is proved by observation. At no period of life, does the body grow as rapidly as during puberty. The researches of Quetelet and Villermé on the weight and height of men at different ages, (Annales &c. p. 26) leave no doubt on this subject. Thus the annual increase in the weight of the body which until the period of puberty was only from three to three and a half pounds, suddenly rises to five and six pounds when this period commences, and gets to be twelve pounds when it is at the summum of intensity. And it is worthy of remark that in females who arrive at the age of puberty about two years earlier than males, this increase of growth also commences two years sooner. A similar fact is observed in those monsters who present in early infancy traces of virility: in them the mass of the body is in a direct ratio with the development of the genital system; hence their height and weight are enormous. This is proved by a great number of facts related by authors and particularly by Moreau, Fages, J. G. Smith, Gedike, Meckel, Dupuytren, &c. Let us now compare these facts with those pointed out when speaking of eunuchism, and it will be shown that the power of the genital organs in its nutrition follows in its variations those which they experience: that the general growth conforms to theirs, that if one advances the other does, and if one be imperfect, the other is imperfect.
This increase in the activity of the nutritive powers during puberty, is not shown simply by the increase of the substance of the body, it manifests itself by other symptoms. More heat is generated in the tissues, as is indicated particularly by the facility with which individuals at the age of puberty resist cold, and by the interesting remark of Quetelet and Smitz, that the summer of all seasons of the year is most fatal to them. Ailments of every kind too show in most subjects, that the influence of the genital organs on all parts of the body may be so great as even to derange the functions: of this character are pains, heaviness in the head, vertigos, redness of the face, numbness in the limbs, dulness and oppression, palpitations of the heart, bleeding from the nose, painful engorgements of the lymphatic ganglions, different inflammations, &c. &c. Finally the body responds like an echo, to all that takes place in the genital system. Need we say that nothing of the kind takes place in eunuchs.
The active development of the genital parts exercises an equal influence on the functions of the life of relation, in the faculties of sensation, action, and thought. These faculties, which are so feeble in the eunuch are extremely active during puberty. This is the age of muscular activity and agility. If those who are growing up, sometimes are reluctant to take exercise, this feeling of reluctance depends on a hyperemia of the nervous centres, which soon disappears. Numerous different and generally transient sensations, denote the part which the nervous system takes in what passes in the genital system; and this is proved also by the frequency of convulsive and spasmodic affections at this period of life. The moral susceptibility is then still more exalted than the physical susceptibility. The mind directed and controlled by the most vivid, most varied, and most transient impressions, takes up and lays aside the most opposite opinions, and adopts the most hazardous enterprises. This disposition has existed to so great a degree as even to constitute a kind of monomania, so transient as to be almost imperceptible, and during which crimes, (particularly that of arson) were committed. This fact rests on the authority of Osiander, Henke, of the faculty of medicine at Leipsick, of Marc and of many other authors. (See Marc’s memoir on incendiary monomania, Annales d’hyg. October, 1833.) But the mental state resulting from the change of puberty is characterized particularly by the readiness with which one shares the affections of others, partakes of their sympathies, and sympathizes with them. This is the moment of generous ideas, or as is remarked by those, whose minds no longer feel the action of organs which have become mute, the period of illusions. How much experience ought not the mind to gain when passing through this moral tempest? Is it astonishing then to find weak minds and cold hearts among eunuchs? Being deprived of these organs which at the period of puberty give so marked an impulse to the system, they do not feel it: the most active of all moral excitants is absent. Judge from this of its power, and yet it is this stimulant which is so much abused by the onanist.
Let us resume our remarks. We have seen by comparing the eunuch to the perfect individual, the male to the female, and the hermaphrodites to those persons whose genitals are perfect, that the genital organs, from the simple fact of their existence, exercise a well-marked influence on the physical intellectual and moral constitution of individuals. We have also seen by comparing the period of life when the genital organs are actively developed, with that when they are simply preserved, that the influence which has been spoken of, is exercised with a variable degree of intensity, and is in a direct ratio with the vital activity which exists in these organs. We may then state as a positive truth, that the genital system modifies extensively the action and sensation of all our organs, and