Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 | Page 7

1. True castrati, from whom both the testicles and the penis had been removed. 2.
Spadones, from whom the testicles only had been removed; this was the most common
practice. 3. _Thlibiæ_, in whom the testicles had not been removed, but destroyed by
crushing; this practice is referred to by Hippocrates. 4. _Thlasiæ_, in whom the spermatic
cord had simply been cut. Millant, from whose Paris thesis (Castration Criminelle et
Maniaque, 1902) I take these definitions, points out that it was recognized that spadones
remained apt for coitus if the operation was performed after puberty, a fact appreciated
by many Roman ladies, ad seouras libidinationes, as St. Jerome remarked, while Martial
(lib. iv) said of a Roman lady who sought eunuchs: "Vult futui Gallia, non parere." (See
also Millant, _Les Eunuques à Travers les Ages_, 1909, and articles by Lipa Bey and
Zambaco, _Sexual-Probleme_, Oct. and Dec., 1911.)
In China, Matignon, formerly physician to the French legation in Pekin, tells us that
eunuchs are by no means without sexual feeling, that they seek the company of women
and, he believes, gratify their sexual desires by such methods as are left open to them, for
the sexual organs are entirely removed. It would seem probable that, the earlier the age at
which the operation is performed, the less marked are the sexual desires, for Matignon
mentions that boys castrated before the age of 10 are regarded by the Chinese as
peculiarly virginal and pure.[10] At Constantinople, where the eunuchs are of negro race,
castration is usually complete and performed before puberty, in order to abolish sexual
potency and desire as far as possible. Even when castration is effected in infancy, sexual
desire is not necessarily rendered impossible. Thus Marie has recorded the case of an
insane Egyptian eunuch whose penis and scrotum were removed in infancy; yet, he had
frequent and intense sexual desire with ejaculation of mucus and believed that an
invisible princess touched him and aroused voluptuous sensations. Although the body had
a feminine appearance, the prostate was normal and the vesiculæ seminales not

atrophied.[11] It may be added that Lancaster[12] quotes the following remark, made by
a resident for many years in the land, concerning Nubian eunuchs: "As far as I can judge,
sex feeling exists unmodified by absence of the sexual organs. The eunuch differs from
the man not in the absence of sexual passion, but only in the fact that he cannot fully
gratify it. As far as he can approach a gratification of it he does so." In this connection it
may be noted that (as quoted by Moll) Jäger attributes the preference of some
women--noted in ancient Rome and in the East--for castrated men as due not only to the
freedom from risk of impregnation in such intercourse, but also to the longer duration of
erection in the castrated.
When castration is performed without removal of the penis it is said that potency remains
for at least ten years afterward, and Disselhorst, who in his _Die accessorischen
Geschlechtsdrüsen der Wirbelthiere_ takes the same view as has been here adopted,
mentions that, according to Pelikan (_Das Skopzentum in Rüssland_), those castrated at
puberty are fit for coitus long afterward. When castration is performed for surgical
reasons at a later age it is still less likely to affect potency or to change the sexual
feelings.[13] Guinard concludes that the sexual impulse after castration is relatively more
persistent in man than in the lower animals, and is sometimes even heightened, being
probably more dependent on external stimuli.[14]
Except in the East, castration is more often performed on women than on men, and then
the evidence as to the influence of the removal of the ovaries on the sexual emotions
shows varying results. It has been found that after castration sexual desire and sexual
pleasure in coitus may either remain the same, be diminished or extinguished, or be
increased. By some the diminution has been attributed to autosuggestion, the woman
being convinced that she can no longer be like other women; the augmentation of desire
and pleasure has been supposed to be due to the removal of the dread of impregnation.
We have, of course, to take into account individual peculiarities, method of life, and the
state of the health.
In France Jayle ("Effets physiologiques de la Castration chez la Femme," _Revue de
Gynécologie_, 1897, pp. 403-57) found that, among 33 patients in whom ovariotomy had
been performed, in 18 sexual desire remained the same, in 3 it was diminished, in 8
abolished, in 3 increased; while pleasure in coitus remained the same in 17, was
diminished in 1, abolished in 4, and increased in 5, in 6 cases sexual intercourse was very
painful. In two other groups of cases--one in which both ovaries and uterus were removed
and