Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 | Page 8

another in which the uterus alone was removed--the results were not notably
different.
In Germany Gläveke (_Archiv für Gynäkologie_, Bd. xxxv, 1889) found that desire
remained in 6 cases, was diminished in 10, and disappeared in 11, while pleasure in
intercourse remained in 8, was diminished in 10, and was lost in 8. Pfister, again
(_Archiv für Gynäkologie_, Bd. lvi, 1898), examined this point in 99 castrated women;
he remarks that sexual desire and sexual pleasure in intercourse were usually associated,
and found the former unchanged in 19 cases, decreased in 24, lost in 35, never present in
21, while the latter was unchanged in 18 cases and diminished or lost in 60. Keppler
(International Medical Congress, Berlin, 1890) found that among 46 castrated women
sexual feeling was in no case abolished. Adler also, who discusses this question (Die
Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, p. 75 et seq.), criticises Gläveke's
statements and concludes that there is no strict relation between the sexual organs and the

sexual feelings. Kisch, who has known several cases in which the feelings remained the
same as before the operation, brings together (_The Sexual Life of Women_) varying
opinions of numerous authors regarding the effects of removal of the ovaries on the
sexual appetite.
In America Bloom (as quoted in Medical Standard, 1896, p. 121) found that in none of
the cases of women investigated, in which oöphorectomy had been performed before the
age of 33, was the sexual appetite entirely lost; in most of them it had not materially
diminished and in a few it was intensified. There was, however, a general consensus of
opinion that the normal vaginal secretion during coitus was greatly lessened. In the cases
of women over 33, including also hysterectomies, a gradual lessening of sexual feeling
and desire was found to occur most generally. Dr. Isabel Davenport records 2 cases
(reported in Medical Standard, 1895, p. 346) of women between 30 and 35 years of age
whose erotic tendencies were extreme; the ovaries and tubes were removed, in one case
for disease, in the other with a view of removing the sexual tendencies; in neither case
was there any change. Lapthorn Smith (Medical Record, vol. xlviii) has reported the case
of an unmarried woman of 24 whose ovaries and tubes had been removed seven years
previously for pain and enlargement, and the periods had disappeared for six years; she
had had experience of sexual intercourse, and declared that she had never felt such
extreme sexual excitement and pleasure as during coitus at the end of this time.
In England Lawson Tait and Bantock (British Medical Journal, October 14, 1899, p. 975)
have noted that sexual passion seems sometimes to be increased even after the removal of
ovaries, tubes, and uterus. Lawson Tait also stated (_British Gynæcological Journal_,
Feb., 1887, p. 534) that after systematic and extensive inquiry he had not found a single
instance in which, provided that sexual appetite existed before the removal of the
appendages, it was abolished by that operation. A Medical Inquiry Committee appointed
by the Liverpool Medical Institute (ibid., p. 617) had previously reported that a
considerable number of patients stated that they had suffered a distinct loss of sexual
feeling. Lawson Tait, however, throws doubts on the reliability of the Committee's results,
which were based on the statements of unintelligent hospital patients.
I may quote the following remarks from a communication sent to me by an experienced
physician in Australia: "No rule can be laid down in cases in which both ovaries have
been extirpated. Some women say that, though formerly passionate, they have since
become quite indifferent, but I am of opinion that the majority of women who have had
prior sexual experience retain desire and gratification in an equal degree to that they had
before operation. I know one case in which a young girl hardly 19 years old, who had
been accustomed to congress for some twelve months, had trouble which necessitated the
removal of the ovaries and tubes on both sides. Far from losing all her desire or
gratification, both were very materially increased in intensity. Menstruation has entirely
ceased, without loss of femininity in either disposition or appearance. During intercourse,
I am told, there is continuous spasmodic contraction of various parts of the vagina and
vulva."
The independence of the sexual impulse from the distention of the sexual glands is
further indicated by the great frequency with which sexual sensations, in a faint or even
strong degree, are experienced in childhood and sometimes in infancy, and by the fact
that they often persist in women long after the sexual glands have ceased their functions.
In the study of auto-erotism in another volume of these Studies I have brought together

some of the evidence showing that even in very young children spontaneous