RESULTS OF CASTRATION 35 



postpuberally castrated rabbits about two months after the 

 operation. But eventually the postpuberally castrated animal 

 also will lose its sexual activity; about three months after the 

 operation adult castrated male rabbits can be distinguished 

 from normal males. 



All these experimental observations are in accordance with 

 those upon male domestic animals, in which after prepuberal 

 castration sexual activity disappears after a certain time. 

 Horses postpuberally castrated lose sexual activity after 

 about two or three years. According to French military 

 veterinarians about 2 or 3 % of castrated horses continue to 

 show sexual activity, and even undergo coitus with sterile 

 ejaculations. Busquet (19 10) whom I quote, thinks that 

 possibly another organ replaces the sexual glands in these 

 cases; but this suggestion is not supported by evidence. The 

 psycho-sexual behaviour of man and mammals is very different 

 according to the age at which castration was performed and 

 according to the period of time after castration. The older 

 the animal at the time of castration and the shorter the period 

 after the operation, the greater the probability that some signs 

 of sexual activity may continue. There can, however, be 

 little doubt that castration generally leads to disappearance 

 of sexual activity in the horse as in other mammals. 



It now seems certain that the sexual glands not only are 

 responsible for the development of the psycho-sexual be- 

 haviour, but also for its continuance after full puberty is 

 attained. Prepuberal castration admits of the existence of a 

 rudimentary sexual behaviour; when castration is done after 

 the psycho-sexual behaviour has been fully developed, the 

 influence of the sexual glands exerted hitherto evidently 

 suffices for its continuance for some time; possibly because 

 certain reflex actions which lay at the root of the sexual 

 behaviour are more or less fixed under the influence of the 

 sexual glands. But, as already said, sexual activity eventually 

 ceases soon after postpuberal castration. There seems to be 

 some difference between man and animals in this respect, 

 sexual activity continuing longer and being more frequently 

 displayed in the former than in the latter. I think that this 

 is to be explained by the reflex actions responsible for erection 

 and coitus being fixed and brought into play in the normal 

 man by more manifold external factors than in the lower 



