Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 | Page 6

vesiculares_ and _glandulæ prostaticæ_ led to disappearance of the capacity
for procreation. Steinach came to the conclusion that this is because the secretions of
these glands impart increased vitality to the spermatozoa, and he points out that great
fertility and high development of the accessory sexual glands go together.
Steinach found that, when sexually mature white rats were castrated, though at first they
remained as potent as ever, their potency gradually declined; sexual excitement, however,
and sexual inclination always persisted. He then proceeded to castrate rats before puberty
and discovered the highly significant fact that in these also a quite considerable degree of
sexual inclination appeared. They followed, sniffed, and licked the females like ordinary
males; and that this was not a mere indication of curiosity was shown by the fact that they
made attempts at coitus which only differed from those of normal males by the failure of
erection and ejaculation, though, occasionally, there was imperfect erection. This lasted
for a year, and then their sexual inclinations began to decline, and they showed signs of
premature age. These manifestations of sexual sense Steinach compares to those noted in
the human species during childhood.[6]
The genesic tendencies are thus, to a certain degree, independent of the generative glands,
although the development of these glands serves to increase the genesic ability and to
furnish the impulsion necessary to assure procreation, as well as to insure the
development of the secondary sexual characters, probably by the influence of secretions
elaborated and thrown into the system from the primary sexual glands.[7]
Halban ("Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere," _Archiv für Gynäkologie_, 1903,
pp. 205-308) argues that the primary sex glands do not necessarily produce the secondary
sex characters, nor inhibit the development of those characteristic of the opposite sex. It
is indeed the rule, but it is not the inevitable result. Sexual differences exist from the first.
Nussbaum made experiments on frogs (_Rana fusca_), which go through a yearly cycle
of secondary sexual changes at the period of heat. These changes cease on castration, but,
if the testes of other frogs are introduced beneath the skin of the castrated frogs,
Nussbaum found that they acted as if the frog had not been castrated. It is the secretion of
the testes which produces the secondary sexual changes. But Nussbaum found that the
testicular secretion does not work if the nerves of the secondary sexual region are cut, and
that the secretion has no direct action on the organism. Pflüger, discussing these
experiments (_Archiv für die Gesammte Physiologie_, 1907, vol. cxvi, parts 5 and 6),
disputes this conclusion, and argues that the secretion is not dependent on the action of
the nervous system, and that therefore the secondary sexual characters are independent of
the nervous system.
Steinach has also in later experiments ("Geschlechtstrieb und echt Sekundäre
Geschlechtsmerkmale als Folge der innerskretorischen Funktion der Keimdrusen,"
_Zentralblatt für Physiologie_, Bd. xxiv, Nu. 13, 1910) argued against any local nervous
influence. He found in Rana fusca and esculenta that after castration in autumn the
impulse to grasp the female persisted in some degrees and then disappeared, reappearing
in a slight degree, however, every winter at the normal period of sexual activity. But
when the testicular substance of actively sexual frogs was injected into the castrated frogs
it exerted an elective action on the sexual reflex, sometimes in a few hours, but the action

is, Steinach concludes, first central. The testicular secretion of frogs that were not
sexually active had no stimulating action, but if the frogs were sexually active the
injection of their central nervous substance was as effective as their testicular substance.
In either case, Steinach concludes, there is the removal of an inhibition which is in
operation at sexually quiescent periods.
Speaking generally, Steinach considers that there is a process of "erotisation"
(Erotisieurung) of the nervous center under the influence of the internal testicular
secretions, and that this persists even when the primary physical stimulus has been
removed.
The experience of veterinary surgeons also shows that the sexual impulse tends to persist
in animals after castration. Thus the ox and the gelding make frequent efforts to copulate
with females in heat. In some cases, at all events in the case of the horse, castrated
animals remain potent, and are even abnormally ardent, although impregnation cannot, of
course, result.[8]
The results obtained by scientific experiment and veterinary experience on the lower
animals are confirmed by observation of various groups of phenomena in the human
species. There can be no doubt that castrated men may still possess sexual impulses. This
has been noted by observers in various countries in which eunuchs are made and
employed.[9]
It is important to remember that there are different degrees of castration, for in current
language these are seldom distinguished. The Romans recognized four different degrees: