224 



THE SEX-COMPLEX 



influence of The influence of psychoses on the genital 



psychoses on r , . . ., . *, * ,1 



the genital functions. Psychoses may arise quite independently 

 functions. o f tne genital functions, and, nevertheless, be associated 

 with anomalies of those functions. Thus, it is quite 

 common to see amenorrhoea in association with insanities 

 indeed, some alienists describe an ' amenorrhoeal in- 

 sanity' 1 ; but most observers look upon the ameno- 

 rrhoea as a concomitant phenomenon, and not as the 

 cause of the mental derangement. That atrophy of 

 the ovary is the causal factor in these cases is some- 

 what disproved by the fact that recovery frequently 

 takes place in regard both to the mental and menstrual 

 disorders. 



Mott has laid stress on the fact that the ovaries are 

 often found to be atrophic in cases of insanity, but, 

 while this is undoubtedly true in some cases, it is 

 unfortunate that this author selects for an example the 

 case of a woman, who at the post-climacteric age of 57 

 years was found post mortem to have an " infantile 

 uterus " and atrophic ovaries ! One would expect to 

 find the ovaries atrophic and the uterus senile (not 

 infantile) at this time of life, apart from gonorrhoeal 

 infections or hypothyroidism, which, also, were said to 

 have existed. The sexual and reproductive history of 

 this case, although of considerable importance, is not 

 given. 



Dementia In 1917, after the first edition of this work had 



genital and been published, two papers, which may be of some im- 



atrophy. portance in regard to the condition of the sex-glands in 



insanity, appeared. The researches on which they were 



based had been conducted under the supervision of Mott. 



In the first, by the late Laura Forster 2 , which was 



published with an addendum by Mott, it is stated that 



there is a definite scarcity in the number of healthy 



Graafian follicles in the ovaries of women suffering with 



1 Ewart, C. T., and others, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. (Obstet. and 

 Gyncecol. Sect.), 1911, vol. v, p. 81. 



2 Forster, Laura, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. (Sect. Psychiat.), 1917, 

 vol. x, p. 65. 



