THE GENESIS OF WOMAN. 275 



miuing the function and its periodical character. AYomen from whom 

 both ovaria have been removed have lived on with this function in 

 lull force, identical, as to quantity and time, to the function previous 

 to the removal (Peaslee, "Ovarian Tumors," p. 527). Cases have 

 occurred in which the ovaria have never passed out of the rudimen- 

 tary state, and yet the general character of these women is decidedly 

 feminine, "and never reminds us of viragos" (Klob, "Pathological 

 Anatomy of the Female Pelvic Organs," p. 14). So far as external 

 sexual traits are concerned, such a woman differs in no manner from 

 one who is functionally perfect. The natural inference is, that forces, 

 other than those which spring from the ovaria and their function, are 

 capable of directing development, and that there is a certain amount 

 of sex, that of the general configuration of the body especially, which 

 develops independently of ovarian stimulus. 



We may also gain a knowledge, inferentially, of the establish- 

 ment of ovulation by observing the manner of cessation of this func- 

 tion. Its decline and extinction is a slow and gradual process. This 

 ])eriod has a mean duration of nearly three years (Tilt, " Change of 

 Life," p. 65). There are also anatomical changes, which, if taken 

 into account, would greatly extend this time. The gradual decline of 

 the ovarian function is a type of its equally gradual inception. It is 

 a reasonable inference that, whatever takes time in throwing down, 

 also requires time in the building up. So far as the importance of the 

 change of life and the beginning of ovulation are concerned, the latter 

 greatly exceeds the former — I am speaking of the two phenomena as 

 physiological acts — and yet we see the former always attended by 

 anatomical preparation, and by a functional activity so slowly di- 

 minished, that even the subject herself is unconscious of the crisis 

 through which she is passing. I have already alluded to the fact that 

 paroxysm, or rapidity in the establishment of a function, is an evi- 

 dence of disease, and not the healthy way Nature has of doing this 

 work. 



In an article of this kind many facts which have a direct bearing 

 upon this question cannot be mentioned in detail. Such a fact is the 

 early vice of a peculiar nature to which very young children become 

 addicted. The impulse to this is generally ascribed to emotions which 

 result from ovarian stimulus ; but, on the contrary, the tendency to 

 vice exists long anterior to the development of this function. I can 

 only state the fact that the presence of the passions antedates the 

 appearance of ovulation by months and years; thus, the interest mu- 

 tually excited in children of opposite sex is not confined to nubile 

 years. In suj^port of this I can appeal to the common experience of 

 adults. 



The conclusions at which I arrive are briefly these : 



That sex, structurally and functionally, from infancy to puberty, is 

 in a state of slow and progressive evolution. 



