740 OP THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



shown by Dr. N. S. Davis, 1 however, that there is no perceptible difference in 

 the dimensions of this central lobe, any more than in those of the hemispheres, 

 between Bulls and Oxen ; and no proof has yet been offered, save that afforded 

 by the pathological evidence just referred to, that any such endowment is pos- 

 sessed by it. That in some way or other, however, either the central portion of 

 the Cerebellum, or some part of the Medulla Oblongata, has a special connection 

 with the Generative function, appears to the Author to be indicated with tole- 

 rable clearness by several of the pathological phenomena already cited. The 

 circumstance, too, of which he has frequently been assured, that great application 

 to gymnastic exercises diminishes for a time the sexual vigor, and even totally 

 suspends desire, seems worthy of consideration in reference to such a view; for 

 if the Cerebellum be really connected with both kinds of function, it does not 

 seem unreasonable that the excessive employment of it upon one should diminish 

 its energy in regard to the other. An analysis of the nature of the Sexual pro- 

 pensity, however, suggests the conclusion that we are not to look in this part of 

 the Encephalon for anything else than a seat of the sexual sensation; the cha- 

 racter of which seems to be sufficiently different from that of mere tactile sensa- 

 tion, to require a distinct ganglionic centre. Such a centre would be likely to 

 be placed in the line of the other sensory ganglia, and in close connection with 

 them. 



772. As in the case of other sensations, the sexual, when moderately excited, 

 may give rise to ideas, emotions, and desires, of which the Cerebrum is the seat; 

 and these may react on the muscular system through the Intelligence and Will. 

 But when inordinately excited, or when not kept in restraint by the Will, the 

 sexual sensations will at once call into play respondent movements, which 

 are then to be regarded as purely automatic; this is the case in Nymphomania 

 and Satyriasis in the Human subject; and it is probably also the ordinary mode 

 of operation of this sense in such of the lower animals as have not psychical 

 power enough to form a conception of an absent object of gratification, and 

 cannot, therefore, be said to have sexual desires. Thus, like other sensations, 

 it may act either intelligentially or automatically ; giving rise to ideas, by 

 transmission to the Cerebrum, which ideas, associated with pleasurable feelings, 

 originate desires, which stimulate the reasoning powers to devise means for their 

 gratification, and excite the will to the necessary actions; or, by its immediate 

 action upon the motor apparatus, producing respondent movements. Of this 

 double modus operandi we seem to have sufficient evidence. For, among many 

 of the lower tribes of animals, at the time when the generative organs are in a 

 state of functional activity, the presence of an individual of the opposite sex, 

 indicated by the sight, smell, hearing, or touch, immediately excites the whole 

 train of instinctive actions concerned in the reproductive operation; whilst we 

 have no evidence in them of any voluntary exertion, resulting from the existence 

 of a desire entertained in the absence of the object, and intended for the gratifi- 

 cation of that desire. In Man, on the other hand, the principal operation of 

 the sexual sensations is in awakening desires and affections, which serve as 

 excitements to the intelligence and as motives to the will; and it is only, under 

 ordinary circumstances, when the two sexes have been thus brought into close 

 relation, that the direct reaction of the sexual sensation manifests itself in auto- 

 matic movements. In cases, however, in which this sensation is excited in 

 unusual strength, it may completely overmaster all motives to the repression of 

 the propensity, and may even entirely remove the actions from the control of 

 the will; and a state of a very similar kind exists in many idiots, in whom the 

 sexual propensity exerts a dominant power, not because it is in itself peculiarly 



1 "Transactions of American Medical Association," vol. iii. p. 415. 



