TESTICLE (NORMAL ANATOMY). 



983 



sions have also very powerful effect in excit- 

 ing sexual desire must have been within the 

 experience of almost every one ; the fact is 

 most remarkable, however, in cases of saty- 

 riasis ; which disease is generally found to be 

 connected with some obvious cause ot irrita- 

 tion of the generative system, such as pruri- 

 tus, active congestion," &c. * 



The part of the brain which is the seat of the 

 sexual appetite is supposed by the phrenolo- 

 gists to be the cerebellum, between which and 

 the genital organs a close sympathy is said to 

 exist. The grounds for this assumption, and 

 the objections which have been fairly urged 

 against it by sound physiologists, have been 

 stated in a preceding article. (NERVOUS SYS- 

 TEM, PHYSIOLOGY OF, vol. iii. p. 782. s.) No 

 doubt, however, can be entertained that the 

 mind is intimately connected with the procre- 

 ative faculty, and that the brain controls and 

 animates the desire for sexual enjoyment. An 

 affection of the brain, or the mind, as sudden 

 disgust, arrests the secretion of the testicles 

 and extinguishes all desire as quickly and 

 effectually as a strong mental impression stops 

 the secretion of the gastric juice, and takes 

 away all appetite for food. The influence of 

 the brain on the reproductive function is well 

 illustrated by the occasional effects of injuries 

 of the head. Hildanus mentions the case of 

 a man accused of impotency by his wife, who 

 sued for a divorce. Nothing external was de- 

 fective ; but the man stated that eight years 

 previously he had received a blow on his head 

 by a stick. From that period, " confitebatur 

 penem erigi non posse." f Dr. Fisher relates 

 the case of a gentleman who, while looking 

 out of the window of a railway carriage, 

 which at that moment encountered a violent 

 collision, received a blow on the head and 

 neck, by which he was stunned. On the se- 

 cond day after the accident he complained of 

 a numbness in his right arm, and experienced 

 difficulty in passing his urine. In the course 

 of two weeks he was able to leave his bed, 

 and walk in the street ; but his vision was 

 defective. Between the fourth and fifth week 

 after his injury he made the discovery that he 

 had lost the desire and physical power for 

 sexual intercourse, and that no amorous 

 sentiment, or the approach of a female could 

 excite it. Under appropriate treatment the 

 bladder gradually recovered its power, and his 

 vision became perfect ; but the numbness of 

 the right arm continued, and the generative 

 functions remained partially impaired. His 

 mental powers, particularly his memory of 

 events, were also for a time seriously affected.^ 

 Dr. Gall mentions that at Vienna he was con- 

 sulted by two officers who had become im- 

 potent in consequence of blows from fire-arms 

 which had grazed the napes of their necks. 

 One of the officers recovered his powers by 



* Dr. Carpenter's Principles of Human Physio- 

 logy, p. 619. 



f Opera Observationum et Curationum Meclico- 

 Chiriirgiearuni, p. 574. 



J Case by Dr. Fisher. American Journal of the 

 Medical Sciences, Feb. 1839. p. 357. 



degrees, married, and became the father of 

 several children.* 



When treating of Atrophy of these glands, 

 I shall have occasion to mention cases in 

 which the genital function has been perma- 

 nently annihilated, and complete wasting of 

 the testicles has resulted from injuries of the 

 head. In respect to the mode in which these 

 organs are called into action, they bear consi- 

 derable analogy to the lachrymal, salivary, and 

 mammary glands, in which secretion is excited 

 both by the influence of the mind and by me- 

 chanical contact or local irritation of the ex- 

 tremity of the excretory duct, the glans penis 

 holding the same relation to the testicle as the 

 mucous membrane of the mouth does to the 

 salivary glands, or as the nipple does to the 

 mamma. 



The influence of the testicles and brain 

 upon each other appears, as has been already 

 observed, to be reciprocal ; for not only may 

 desire be aroused by local irritation and ex- 

 citing the testicles to secrete, but the passion 

 itself never arises when these glands are re- 

 moved before puberty and is extinguished by 

 their extirpation afterwards. Nothing, indeed, 

 illustrates more forcibly the intimate relation 

 which the functions of the testicles bear to 

 the mind and character of the individual, and 

 the general organisation of the body, than the 

 effects of castration. When it is performed 

 in early life, the changes characteristic of 

 puberty never ensue. There is a deficiency 

 of the beard ; the muscles do not acquire the 

 manly tone and vigour ; the areolar and 

 adipose tissues abound ; the voice retains the 

 high and clear tones of infancy ; and the mind 

 remains deficient in energy and strength. 

 When the testicles are removed after the 

 period of puberty, the eunuch loses in part, 

 though not entirely, his former masculine 

 character. His beard grows less abundantly ; 

 his voice becomes shrill; and there is di- 

 minished energy and vigour in all his senti- 

 ments and actions. These changes in the con- 

 stitution, as well as the loss of the sexual 

 instinct which occur in men thus degraded, do 

 not immediately succeed the removal of the 

 testicles, but take place gradually ; and there 

 are well-attested cases in which desire has 

 been experienced, and connection with emis- 

 sion accomplished many months after the loss 

 of these organs. This shows that the passion 

 is not solely dependent on the secretion of 

 semen, though it invariably declines when the 

 power of procreation becomes lost. The emis- 

 sions in such cases are imperfect and fruitless, 

 consisting merely of the secretions of the 

 vesiculae seminales and prostrate. The testi- 

 cles not being parts essential to life, are sub- 

 ject to different laws from those which re- 

 gulate the actions of the vital organs. Their 

 functions may be suspended, or they may 

 remain in abeyance for an indefinite period 

 without injury to the glands or any material 

 effect on the constitution. In persons of 



* On the Functions o f the Cwebellimi, tr. by 

 Combe, p. -10. 



