EUNUCHOIDISM AND SEXUAL PRECOCITY 431 



that I cannot repress the feehng that we are still very far from 

 a true insight into the quantitative side of the question. 



B. SEXUAL PRECOCITY. 



Many cases have been described in which such sex characters 

 as the penis and the hair of the regio pubis were developed in 

 boys at a very early age instead of at or shortly after puberty, 

 and similarly with the larynx and the voice. Erotization also 

 can take place very early, and erections and pollutions may 

 occur. Examples are to be found in the extensive paper of 

 Neurath (1909). Krabbe's case (1917) was a boy of 10 months 

 with a penis five cm. long and of a virile type. The scrotum 

 was voluminous and limp. The skin of the penis and of 

 the scrotum was strongly pigmented. There was a crown 

 of dark short puberal hairs around the radix penis. There 

 was no hair on the face, in the axillae or on the perineum. 

 Definite erections were often observed. No signs of dis- 

 turbance of the hypophysis are recorded; the child showed 

 various nervous troubles of a spastic character and was im- 

 becile. It should be pointed out, however, that concomitant 

 disturbances are not always present in cases of sexual precocity. 

 The individuals may be harmoniously developed in every 

 somatic respect, there being not only a precocity of sexual 

 development, but at the same time also a precocity of somatic 

 development in general. An interesting case of this kind has 

 been described by Obmann and Hirschfeld (19 17). A boy of 4 

 with milk teeth had genitalia like a boy of 16 or 18 ; the voice 

 was like that of an adult man. The boy had a body height 

 of 121 cm. against 100 cm. for normal children of this age, and 

 weighed 68 gr. against the normal 28. The boy was observed 

 by Hirschfeld doing hard agricultural work. A similar case 

 was recently observed by Professor Masing in Dorpat, and 

 through his kindness I have had the opportunity of seeing this 

 case myself also. This boy of 3 years and 3 weeks was highly 

 developed in every respect. Figure 135 in which a photograph 

 of the patient is shown along with a normal boy of the same age 

 is sufficient to give an idea of the high somatic development 

 attained in this case. The body length was 113 cm. against 

 a normal body length of about 90 cm. at the same age ; the real 

 body length was even greater as the boy had highly pronounced 

 bow legs. The circumference of the head was 55 cm,, against 



2E 



