GENERATION. 



the place of llie beard fupplied b)- a flight down. The 

 voice habitually hoarfe. The mufcles not well marked, and 

 the pelvis and chell refembling thofe of the female. 'I he 

 uitel!e<ftual faculties are very dull, and the fexual appetite 

 entirely wanting. 



Th,-period, ;uid the manner of mutilation, have confidrrable 

 influence on the efFecb of the procefs. The complete re- 

 moval of all the external organs is a much more dccilive 

 method of annihilating the propenfities connefted with them, 

 than any partial amputation, or compreffion, or hgature of 

 the fpermatic cords. The operation is alio more effectual, 

 when pel formed in early infancy, than after the period of 

 puberty. Venereal dcfires have been known to fubfilt in 

 confiderable force, and with the ufual external iigns, after 

 the removal of the teltes in the adult. The moral effefts of 

 this mutilation have been (Irongly depicted by Cabanis. 

 *• E'Jimch". ar" the vilell clafs of the human fpecies: cowardly 

 and knavidi becaufe they are weak; envious and malignant, 

 becaufe they are unfortunate. Their unJerllanding Ihews 

 the abfence of tliofe impreffions, which give to the brain fo 

 much a<Aivity, which infufe into it an extraordinary pro- 

 portion of vital energy, which cherifli all the expanfive and 

 generoi's feelings of the foul, elevate and direct all the 

 thoughts. Narfes is almoll the only very impoling excep- 

 tion to this rule ; he is ahnoll the only eunuch whole name 

 appears with glury in the page of hifiory. Solomon, one of 

 the lieutenants of Belifarius, is another rare example ; he 

 exhibited great courage and talents in the war with the 

 Vandals in Africa. How immoral then, how cruel and 

 fatal to fcciety, is the practice of thus degrading and corrupt- 

 ing at plealure the human fi>ecies !'' 



A curious cafe in the Philolophical Tranfaftions for 1805, 

 pt. 2, in which the ovaria were deficient, fliews that fucii a 

 ilehcieney occai'ioiis the female to approach in fome points to 

 the male formation. The lubjeA of this narrative died at 

 the age of twenty-nine. *' Having ceafcd to grow at ten 

 years of age, (lie was in ftatiu'e not more than four feet fix 

 inches high. Her breadth aciofs the (lioulders was as much 

 as fourteen inches, but her pelvis (contrary to what is ufually 

 obferved in the proportions of the female Skeleton) mea- 

 fured only nine inches from the ofla ilia acrofs the facrum. 

 Her brealls and nipples never enlarged more than in the male 

 fubj £1 ; fhe never menilruated : there was no appearance 

 of hair on the pubes, nor were there any indications of pu- 

 berty, either in mind or body, even at twenty-nine years of 

 age." The remov.il of the ovaries has been moit rarely 

 pratllfed in the human fubjeti : probably the only cafe in 

 which it has ever been done is that recorded by Mr. Pott, 

 where thefe bodies were contained in inguinal hernia. A 

 healthy young v.oman, aged tweiity.three, large breafted, 

 ilout, and menftruatli>g regularly, had a painful tumour in 

 each groin, near the abdominal mufcles. The ovaria were 

 removed from thele tumours by a furgical operation. " She 

 lias enjoyed good lieallh ever fince, but is become thinner 

 and more apparently mufcular ; her breaiU, which were 

 large, are gone ; nor has fhe ever inenflrviated luice the ope- 

 ration, which is now fome ye.irs." (Pott's Works, vol. iii. 

 p. 329.) The chAHges which took place in the latter cafe 

 feem analogous to what has been obferved in fome birds. 

 After th-'y have done laying, hen phcafants have been ob- 

 ferved to <icquire the plumage of the cock in fome inftances. 

 This hag been noticed in wild individuals ;but Mr.Hunterhad 

 three opportunities of afcertaining the facl by his own exami- 

 nation. He further mentions a pea-hen, which had produced 

 chickens eight times, and which, after moulting at eleven 

 years old, difplayed the feathers peculi.ir to the other fcx. 

 The tail of the cytk appeared at the fame time. This was 



Vol. XVI. 



repeated for three years, and the fpurs of the cock appeired 

 alio in the third year. The animal never bred after this 

 change of plumage. The fame faft has been noticed in tlie 

 duck, fee Home on Hermaphrodites, in the Philof. Tr> rfafl. 

 1 795. " We may conclude," fays Mr. Hunter, " that this 

 change is merely the efTeft of age, and obtains to a certain 

 degree in every clafs of animals. We find fometh::ig fiir.ilar 

 taking place ever, in the human fpecies ; for that incn-afe of 

 hair obfervable on the faces of many women in advanced life, 

 is an approach towards the beard, which is one of the moft 

 dillinguilhing fecondary properties of man. Thus we fee 

 the fexes, which, at an early i>eriod, had little to dillii;gui(h 

 them from each other, acquiring, about tlie time of puberty, 

 fiCondary pro' erties, which clearly charafterize tiie male and 

 female ; the male at this time receding from the female, and 

 affuming the fecondary properties of his fe\. The female, 

 at a much later time of life, when the powers of propagation 

 ccafe, lofes many of her peculiar properties ; and may b? 

 faid, except from the mere llrudtuie of parts, to be of no 

 fex ; even recediivg from the original charafter of the animal, 

 and approaching in appearance towards the male, or perhaps 

 more properly towards the hermaphrodite.'' Obfervations 

 on the Animal Economy, p 80. 



Nothing can be more abfurd than to ftek for any mer.hu- 

 nical explanation of tliefe accidental phenomena, or even of 

 the mors regular phenomena, of which they hiterrupt the 

 courfe, at the fame tiire that they elucidate the laws. They 

 cannot furelybe derived from the ftructure of the organs to 

 which they belong, nor from the known nature of the li- 

 quors fecreted in thofe organs. But the confideration of 

 fome phyllological circuiullances, which are very fimple in 

 themfelves, may enable us to eicapc from this dark abode of 

 occult cauics, to which the theories of the ancients were 

 conliued, and which have been little changed, except in 

 name, by the modern.'!. The latter indeed, by fubflituting, 

 for the opinions of the ancients, other more dogmajtcal ex- 

 planations, have given rife to more important and dangerous 

 errors; they have inured men's minds to the pernicidui 

 habit of attempting to determine the nature of caufes, where 

 we can only obferve effecls ; and in determining thefe caufes 

 they have often perfoniSed mere abftraclions. In the firft 

 place, it is a certain fad, however it may be explained, that 

 the mufcular fibres are weaker, and the cellular lilTue more 

 abundant, in women tha;i in men. Secondly, we cannot 

 doubt that this difference is produced bv the prefence and 

 influence of the uterus and ovaria ; it takes place infallibly 

 when thefe organs are originally well formed, and are de- 

 veloped in the natural order. This weakncfs of the mufcles 

 imparts an inltiridive diitalle for violent exercifes ; it inclines 

 the individual to amufements, and, when the age admits of it, 

 to fedentarj- occupations, llie greater feparation of the 

 hips renders progrefhon lefs cafy in tlie female, on account of 

 the more extenfive change cf the centre of gravity. The 

 mode of life in the female ii thus indicated ii priori by a cir- 

 cumftance in their organi/.at.or , which might be regarded 

 as trifling, and which can hard.y be diflinclly obferved at an 

 early age. Again, the habitual fenfe of weaknefs infpii-es 

 lets confidence. Not polfeffing the means of acting on fur. 

 rounding objefts by direct force, woman feeks fi r more in- 

 diredt methods ; in i)roportion as fhe finds herfelf lefs cab 

 culated to exifl alone, docs flie attempt to attract tlie atten- 

 tion of others, and to fortify her own cxillence bv that of 

 thofe furrounding beings, whom fhe judges mofl able to 

 protedt her. Thefe obfervations would be almolt fufEcient 

 to explain the difpofitions, tailes, and general habits of 

 women. They will naturally prefer thofe employments 

 which require delicate adtlrcfs rather thaa mufcular force : 



C they 



