At this period, which in our climate commences from the twelfth to the sixteenth year, a little sooner in females than in males, the genital organs have the most vitality. Until that time they are developed slowly and almost imperceptibly; they suddenly increase with great activity, and their growth is not arrested till they have arrived at perfection. This is not the place to enter into details as to the labour which then takes place in them: we will merely remark that the change is often so intense as to present all the characters of inflammation. It is then admissible that in such a state these organs should exercise on the economy a much more powerful action than before, when their development was imperceptible, and also than they do afterward, when they have only to preserve themselves. This in fact is proved by observation. At no period of life, does the body grow as rapidly as during puberty. The researches of Quetelet and Villermé on the weight and height of men at different ages, (_Annales &c._ p. 26) leave no doubt on this subject. Thus the annual increase in the weight of the body which until the period of puberty was only from three to three and a half pounds, suddenly rises to five and six pounds when this period commences, and gets to be twelve pounds when it is at the summum of intensity. And it is worthy of remark that in females who arrive at the age of puberty about two years earlier than males, this increase of growth also commences two years sooner. A similar fact is observed in those monsters who present in early infancy traces of virility: in them the mass of the body is in a direct ratio with the development of the genital system; hence their height and weight are enormous. This is proved by a great number of facts related by authors and particularly by Moreau, Fages, J. G. Smith, Gedike, Meckel, Dupuytren, &c. Let us now compare these facts with those pointed out when speaking of eunuchism, and it will be shown that the power of the genital organs in its nutrition follows in its variations those which they experience: that the general growth conforms to theirs, that if one advances the other does, and if one be imperfect, the other is imperfect.