NYMPHOMANIA: SATYRIASIS. 



417 



life and the artificial regimen to which this female is generally 

 subjected, the habit she possesses of conceiving at determined 

 periods, and the diseases of the genital organs produced by re- 

 peated parturition, tuberculosis, etc. The expression "exaggeration 

 of the geuesic instinct implies already a first degree of this 

 anomaly. No precise demarcation can be fixed between the normal 

 genesic instinct and its morbid exaggeration. 



Etiolog-y. The exaltation of the genesic instinct does not con- 

 stitute a pathologic state in the true sense of the word, but only a 

 symptom which may depend upon various causes. 



1. It is more frequent in old than in young cows. The animals 

 which are subjected to fattening (Uebelen) and those which, toward 

 the age of four or five years, are kept in a too fat condition (Rych- 

 ner), are particularly exposed to it. 



2. Over-stimulating alimentation ; this is accused in all species ; 

 rye, barley, and leguminous food are thus designated under the 

 name heating food; insufficient work, and stabling almost per- 

 manent. 



3. Nymphomania of the cow usually depends upon alterations 

 of the genital organs, such as inflammation, cystoid degeneration, 

 hypertrophy, dropsy, cancerous tumors, sarcomatous and tubercu- 

 lous ovaries. The frequency of the exaltation of the genesic sense 

 in tuberculosis has led to the designation of this vice under the 

 name of French disease, monthly heat, " lascivious disease,'^ etc. 

 But tuberculosis only produces lascivity when the genital organs, 

 and especially the ovaries, are affected. Schmidt has performed 

 the autopsy of ten cows which were affected by this vice without 

 finding any lesion explaining nymphomania. The diseases of the 

 uterus which prevent conception (chronic vaginitis, chronic endo- 

 metritis, obstruction of the os uteri, tumors, changes of relation, 

 atrophy and hypertrophy of the uterus) may determine it. 



4. In the equine race the monorchids and cryptorchids are gen- 

 erally affected by satyriasis. 



5. Repeated genital excitement in the entire horse (a stabling in 

 the neighborhood of heated mares), the continual excitement of 

 young mares by the stallion, and onanism in the latter, produce at 

 times satyriasis and lasting nymphomania. 



6. The exaggeration of the genesic sense is also observed in the 

 vesiculous affection of the genital organs of the horse (benign mal 

 de coit, horsepox), in syphilis, in hydrophobia of the dog. Finally, 



27 



