GENERATION. 



they will employ thcmfelves on little objeAs : and their minds 

 will confequently acquire acutenefs and penetration rather 

 than extent and depth. Thus, as tliey lead a fcdcntary life, 

 to which tlie nature of their employments confines tliem as 

 ftron<j-ly as the imir.cdiate propcnfities depending on tlieir 

 organization, we foe ia a manner a new phyfical and moral 

 fyft..-n\ developed in them. Tliey perceive their own weak- 

 iiefs ; hence ihc n-:ceiVity of pleafmg : from the latter cir- 

 cumllance arifes tlio continual obfervation of all that is pair- 

 ing around tliem, alfo their dilfimulation, their artifice.', their 

 manners, their grace?, in a word tlieir coquetry, which, in 

 t!ie prefent fyllem of focicty, mud be regarded as the af- 

 femblagc or refult of their good and bad qualities. 



For reafons cxaftly contrary to thofe which liave been 

 jufl: explained, boys acquire the oppofite original and cha- 

 raderiiiic propcnfities : hence they naturally contra(^t oppo- 

 fite manners and habits. Full of the feelin;^ of their jjro win.j 

 ilr.ngfh, aad of the wiih to excrcifc it, repofe is difagree- 

 able and irkfoiiie to them : they want lively motion, and they 

 indulge in it witii ir.-.pctuofity. Thus, without entering into 

 further details, we L^e that the bent of tlieir ideas ai.d the 

 charafter of their pallions are formed direcHy by their ori- 

 •nnal difpohtions, and the kind of amufements or occupations 

 which thefc determine them to pr>4".r. Now, the paflions 

 and ideas of t!i-' grown man are only tiiofe ot the child de- 

 veloped and completed by the maturity of the organs, and 

 the perfonal experience of the individual. See Cabanis, 

 Rapports du phylique et moral de I'Homnie, memoire 

 cinquieme. 



But nothing hitherto explains to us how modifications of 

 to general a nature can depend on t!ie conditions of certain 

 pecuUar organs. We inaft then afcend a little higher, and 

 inquire whether the remarkable influence exerted by the 

 organs of generation can be at all elucidated by their 

 ilruilure, tlieir functions, or tiieir phyfiological relations to 

 the other branches of the fyilcm. We fee, in t)ie hrll place, 

 that parts fupplied by nerves wh'ch come from i!i!lerent 

 trunks, or are formed by different nerves united together, 

 are either more fenfible or more iiTitable, and almotl always 

 both at once. Nature feems to have placed the ganglia and 

 plexufes in the neighbourhood of the vifcera, where the 

 nervous influence muit be the moll confiderable. The epi- 

 gallric and hypochondriac regions abound with them ; confe- 

 quently their fenfibility is very acute, their fympathies very 

 extenfive, and the correfponding portions of tlie intellinal 

 canal enjoy a degree of irritability hardly equalled by that 

 of the heart. Nov.- the nerves of the generative organs in 

 both fexes, without being apparently very important by 

 their fize or number, come from various fources, are con- 

 nefted with thofe of all the abdominal vifcera, and by them, or 

 rather by the great fympathetic, which ferves as a general 

 medium of ccnneclion, with the moil effential divifions of the 

 nervous fyflem. 



Secondly, obfervation (hews us that the nervous fyftem 

 (of which the original organization and mode of afting de- 

 termine the general fenfibility of all the organs taken toge- 

 ther, and the particular fenfibility of each coiilldered fepa- 

 ratelv) may in its turn be powerfully modified by the charac- 

 ter of thofe functions, which perform the moll important 

 part in the animal economy ; that is to fay, in other word.*, 

 by the habitual impreffions conveyed to it from fome of its 

 moll fenfible extremities. The lofs of one fenfe does not 

 produce merely an increafe of energy or attention in thofe 

 which remain, and which feem to redouble their efforts in 

 order to fupply its place ; but it changes the manner in 

 which the nervous fyllem feels and re-adls, and hence 

 arife new habits eviiiently connected with the unufual im- 



prcfTions which thefe fenfes then begin to receive. The prac- 

 tice of medicine proves to us, by daily examples, that the at- 

 fedlions of various organs have the moit marketl influence on 

 the talles, ideas, and palfions. The moral difpofitions are by 

 no means tiie fame in difeafes of the chell, as in thofe of tlie 

 fpleen or liver. A greater or lei's propenllty towards a par- 

 ticular train of ideas or feelings (as for inflance towards 

 thofe connefted with religious belief) is experienced in par- 

 ticular llatT, of languor than in others ; and the grcatelt apti- 

 tude to thofe avocations, which demand either confiderable 

 ilrcngth and activity in the imagination, or long continued 

 and profound meditation, is often experienced in a itate oi 

 difeale caufed bv the deranged functions of iome of the ab- 

 dominal vifcera. Thus, then, nothing is more conformable to 

 the laws of the animal economy, tlian that organs, endowed 

 with a fmgular degree of ienlibility, lliould cxercife Q very 

 cxtenfive int'ueTiee on the machine in general ; and we per- 

 ceive immediately that the prefent is one of the moft remark- 

 able phenomena referrible to thefe laws. 



In the work lall quoted, Cabanis endeavours to explain 

 this fubjetl further, by obferving that thoie organs, which 

 feem to be the principal feats (foyers') of the peciihar fenfibi- 

 lite of the generalive apparatus, viz. the ovaries and teflicles, 

 are of a glandular llruclure, that the various parts of the 

 glandular fyftem affeel each oiher very powerfully ; aod that 

 the condition of tiiU fvllem altogether has a moil important 

 influence on the ilate of the brain, augmenting or diminifhing 

 its energy. The latter circuniftance will apply with fo much 

 the greater force to a cafe, wiiere the glands are uillinguifhed 

 by their great feniibility. 



Again, it has been alleged that the feminal fluid formed 

 in the tellicles, when abforbed and conveyed into the circu- 

 lation, affedts the general mafs of blood. At all events the 

 crimmencement of this fecretiun is marked by important 

 ciianges in the voice, the mufcular motions, and the phyfiog- 

 nom]-, by the appearance of the beard, &c. And we have 

 feen, that in animals, the development of particular parts 

 is materially modified by the prefence and aftion of the 

 teiles. I'hat an analogous fluid forms in the ovaries, and 

 either furnilhes the m.aterials of the embryo, or contributes 

 to their formation, and that its abforption produces analogous 

 effecls in the female, to thofe which we obfervein the male, 

 is in truth a mere hypothecs. But the influence of the ova- 

 ries in the changes at the time of puberty, whether produced 

 in this way or not, is inconteitible. Laitly, in explaining the 

 different influence of thele parts in the two fexes, we muit 

 affume peculiar difpofitions in the original formations of the 

 nervous fyllem, as well as in the cellular organ, the mufcles, 

 and bones. Thefe mull depend on thofe iinkr.own circum- 

 ftances which influence the formation, life, and develop- 

 ment of the embryo ; their explanation mull be referred to 

 that of the differences of fex, they muil be regarded as 

 fimpie fafts, and be admitted asfuch, without attempting to 

 trace them any higher. 



Hermaphrodifm. — Having compared together the two 

 fexes, and mentioned the moll remarkable circumftances 

 which dilUnguilh the organization of each, we have to exa- 

 mine further whether nature has in any inlhinces united the 

 attributes of the male and female in the fame individuals, fo 

 as to form a true hermaphrodite. The refolution of this 

 queflion, which is not to be conlidered as fatisfying idle cu- 

 riofity, is equally interefting to the naturalill and the philo- 

 fopher, and may influence the decifions of judicial tribunal* 

 on the important queftions of impotence and llerillty. The 

 Grecian artif*s have endeavoured to combine the beauties and 

 properties of the tv.'o fexes in the fame fubjefl, and have 

 exerted the magic powers of their chiffel on figures of her- 

 maphrodites. 



