88 INTRODUCTION TO SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY 



subsequently the impulse is lessened, though not always entirely 

 absent. According to Hikmet and Kegnault the eunuchs of 

 Constantinople have the following mental characteristics : 

 They are avaricious, illogical, and obstinate {i.e. they cannot 

 change or adjust their ideas), they have no capacity for judgment 

 and accept information freely in the absence of proof ; they are 

 not cruel, but are fond of children and animals ; they are faithful 

 in their affections, but possess no courage ; their mental activity 

 is very slight, and they are extremely fanatical. Senility occurs 

 prematurely. 



Fig. 56. — Herdwick rain (normal). ric4. 57. — Herdwick wether (cas- 

 (From ISIarshall and Hannnond, trated young). (From Marshall 



Jou7\ of Fhijsiol.) and Hammond, ./owr.o/y'Ay.sio^.) 



With other vertebrate animals the general physiological effects 

 of castration are similar. The ossification of the epiphyses is 

 arrested. The thymus gland which normally atrophies at or 

 about puberty persists longer or even undergoes hypertrophy. 

 The accessory sexual glands tend to atrophy or do not fully 

 develop, according to the time at which castration is done. If 

 performed early penile erection cannot take place, not even on 

 experimentally stimulating the nervi erigentes (dogs). In 

 animals with a seasonal rut, castration prevents the periodic 

 enlargement of the prostate and other glands (hedgehogs, etc.). 

 The secondary male characters, with a few possible exceptions, 

 do not develop. For example, in breeds of sheep which are 

 horned in the male, but hornless in the female (Merino, Herd- 

 wick or Welsh), castration arrests the development of the horns. 



