Nymphomania in the Mare 241 



could not be attributed to physical punishment so far as the 

 operation proper was concerned and it seems questionable if it 

 could be properly referred to the casting and confinement prior 

 to the anaesthesia. 



The relationship between the clitoris and sexual desire is by 

 no means clear. While disease, functional disorder or irritation 

 may arouse sexual desire, it is equally true that the excision of 

 the organ does not abolish it nor interfere in the least with 

 breeding, as we once witnessd, where some hundreds of sow 

 pigs, from which this organ was removed by a travelling im- 

 postor who asserted that it destroyed sexual desire and fulfilled 

 all requirements of castration, proceeded to copulate as usual and 

 bred as freely as though they had not been operated upon. 



As above stated, the nymphomania of the mare most fre- 

 quently has its basis in cystic or cysto-fibrous degeneration of 

 the ovaries, so far as we have been able, to determine in this 

 clinic, where we have performed ovariotomy in more than fifty 

 nymphomaniac patients. In such cases, excision of the clitoris 

 could apparently overcome the nymphomania only by curing the 

 ovarial degeneration and it would be difficult to understand how 

 such result could be expected. 



We consequently believe that the alleviation of nymphomania 

 by clitoridectomy occurs chiefly in those cases in which ovarial 

 origin may be doubted and in which the disciplining of the 

 patient through casting and securing and, if anaesthesia is not 

 induced, the pain caused by the operation effect the alleged cure. 



The operation is simple and free from any notable danger. 

 The animal may be cast or secured on the operating table or in 

 the stocks and the operation may be performed under general or 

 local anesthesia or without either. The vulvar lips may be held 

 apart with tenacula or retractors and the clitoris seized by means 

 of a tenaculum or tenaculum forceps and, being well drawn out, 

 excised with a scalpel at the point of attachment of its crura to 

 the ischiatic arch. Quite as conveniently, a longitudinal incis- 

 ion may be made from below upwards through the floor of the 

 vulva and the organ then excised, after proper dissection from 

 surrounding tissues. 



The hemorrhage is unimportant and may be controlled by 

 16 



