§ 10. Surgical Operations

The uses of the scalpel which chiefly pertain to our subject are especially these in the man:

50. - Circumcision, which cuts away an excessively narrow prepuce, or phimosis, is very useful for removing excessive irritation arising from various things gradually collected under the skin. The less good habits of boys are often to be imputed to phimosis.

51. - Castration consists essentially in the removal of both testicles.

Sometimes, as among the Turks, the penis itself is removed from those who serve in the "harem." These were called carsamatia. The effects of the cutting short vary according to the age at which it was done.

Those who are castrated before the seventh year of age retain a body greatly altered physically; they are impotent for completing copulation, and generally, though not always, remain immune from sexual libido. They are also affected not a little morally as a result, and are not accustomed to possess a virile spirit. In adulthood, however, this mutilation has little influence upon the exterior appearance of the body; at least for a long time, if the penis has been preserved, it permits the faculty of copulation to remain. Nor is libido quieted by this operation. Sacred Scripture itself testifies to the libidinous affection of eunuchs when it says, "The lust of a eunuch shall deflower a young maiden" ¹; and to their impatient impotence when it adds, "Seeing with his eyes and groaning, like a eunuch embracing a virgin and sighing" ². The comic poet Terence also reports it in this verse: "But, by Pollux, I had heard that they were the greatest lovers of women, but could do nothing" ³.

¹ Ecclesiasticus 20:2.

² Ibid., 30:21.

³ Eunuchus, act 4, scene 3.

Castrated boys are also deprived of the secondary signs of virility: beard, hair, and masculine voice.

Wherefore, since a stable sexual depravity can scarcely be established before adulthood, since the operation is otherwise gravely harmful, and since its very efficacy upon venereal appetite is uncertain, castration cannot be recommended as a remedy for perverted appetite ⁴.

⁴ Compare Féré, op. cit., pp. 9-11; Forel, op. cit., p. 24; Moll, op. cit., pp. 154, 156, 157, 673.

When it must be done because of disease, physicians are accustomed to supply artificial testicles, lest the castrated man be too greatly afflicted by a visible sign of impotence.

52. - Vasectomy or deferentectomy resects the vas deferens above both testicles, by which the sperm properly so called is conducted to the urethral canal. Since only the exterior secretion of the testicle is removed, sexual appetite remains, so that the faculty of intercourse by no means ceases; but, since nemaspermata are lacking, copulation necessarily becomes sterile.

There are some, especially in America, who proclaim this operation most effective for tempering an excessively burning libido; and they declare at the same time that it can be brought about without great difficulty that the canal is afterwards restored. But a true demonstration of its efficacy is still lacking ⁵; and other physicians entirely deny that the separated parts of the vessel can easily be joined well again. Compare the Reverend Father Ferreres, De vasectomia duplici, etc.

⁵ Because of the things which we noted above concerning the twofold secretion, a diminution of sexual libido, if there is any, would have to be explained by a certain hidden alteration of the testicles.

53. In the woman, moreover, besides:

1. Certain operations which pertain here, so that the opening of the vagina may be dilated or opened; or, contrariwise, that the labia dilated by intercourse may be contracted and virginity apparently restored, even with the hymen repaired; we must mention:

2. Castration, by which the ovaries are removed. Observe, however, that the perfect excision of both ovaries can be established with certainty, at least when a certain manner of operating has been employed.

3. Sometimes the uterus itself is excised together with the ovaries; this operation is called Porro from the physician who originated it.

Note well. Among uncultivated peoples, incisions are sometimes made in the exterior labia of the sexual parts, which, because they imitate male circumcision, are called by the same name of circumcision.

4. By the general name laparotomy are designated operations by which the abdomen is opened.

5. To obtain sterility, some physicians merely bruise the ovaries, or ligate the oviduct, so that it can no longer communicate with the uterus.

6. Conversely, so that a living fetus can be brought forth by another route than that of the uterus, the Caesarean operation is available, namely, a longitudinal section of the abdomen; while by

7. Symphysiotomy the very space through which the fetus can emerge through the opening of the vagina is enlarged.

8. A part of the clitoris can sometimes be cut away with sufficient usefulness for diminishing libido.