Page:A Treatise on the Diseases produced by Onanism, Masturbation, Self-pollution, and other excesses.djvu/25

 Rh 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