386 INTERNAL SECRETION 



Exceptional obesity of castrated males is not invariable in 

 man ; and cases of abnormal leanness have been observed. Never- 

 theless, the obese type is very frequent among eunuchs and scopts, 

 the entire fat-body being markedly over-developed and, at certain 

 sites, such as the mamma?, the ventral region, the nates and the 

 hips, attaining colossal proportions. Conspicuous obesity is 

 observed in women both after castration and at the menopause, 

 the percentage of cases in both classes being 42 to 52 per cent. 



With the object of determining the nature of this change in 

 the nutritional conditions, as well as of discovering the cause of 

 the abnormal deposition of fat which was presumably to be 

 sought in the changed manner of life, both physical and mental, 

 the alteration, in fact, of the entire temperament Lowy and 

 Richter estimated the total metabolism (i.e., consumption of 

 oxygen and excretion of carbonic acid) of castrated dogs of both 

 sexes. They found that, aTter castration, metabolism was reduced 

 in the proportion of 14 to 20 per cent, per kilo of body-weight, 

 and that this reduction was maintained for months or even years. 

 They found, moreover, that not only was there a fall in metabolism 

 in proportion to body-weight, but that there was a considerable 

 reduction in the total metabolism apart from body-weight, the 

 latter frequently attaining a higher figure as the result of increased 

 adiposity. The authors concluded from these results that the 

 reduction of metabolism after castration is due to a diminution of 

 the processes of oxidation ; that the obesity is not necessarily 

 degenerative, but may be constitutional. 



Pachtner (1906) confirmed the results of Lowy and Richter. 

 Liithje obtained different results from his experiments with a dog 

 and a bitch, but this is explained by the fact that obesity after 

 castration is by no means invariable, being present in only 50 

 per cent, of the cases under observation. L. Zuntz's statement 

 that, of four castrated women, only one showed reduced oxidation 

 during the resting stage, also offers no evidence against the theory 

 of Lowy and Richter, for Zuntz's subjects did not become obese. 

 This theory is very strongly supported, however, by the discovery 

 that it is possible to raise the depressed metabolism to as much as 

 30 to 50 per cent, above the normal by the exhibition, either sub- 

 cutaneously or by the mouth, of ovarian or testicular substance. 

 In normal, sexually mature animals, the exhibition of these sub- 

 stances is entirely negative. In the case of castrated animals, 

 both male and female, the ovarian substance was found to be the 

 more active, the effects of testicular substance being slight in 

 males and negative in females. 



As far as the influence of the sexual glands upon the meta- 

 bolism of albumin is concerned, the experiments of Liithje, 

 Neumann, Vas, and others show that at no period of life does 

 castration lead to changes in Ihe metabolism of albumin ; and 

 that the increased excretion of nitrogen observed by certain 



