The exquisite sensibility of the clitoris, and the size it commonly presents in lascivious females--that which it acquires in those who masturbate, or who are affected with nymphomania--have led to the opinion, that voluptuous desires are situated exclusively in this organ, and that its removal will extinguish them. Levret was, we believe, the first who conceived the idea of curing nymphomania by this operation. Dubois performed it on a young girl, who was so addicted to onanism, that she was almost in the last stages of marasmus. Aware of the danger of her situation, and yet too weak, or too much under the control of voluptuousness, she could not resist. In vain were her hands and limbs tied: she rubbed herself against the bed, and thus procured excessive discharges. Her parents applied to Dubois, who proposed amputation of the clitoris. This was assented to. The organ was removed by one stroke of the knife: the hemorrhage was arrested by the actual cautery, and the girl recovered her health and strength. Richerand, who has reported this case, considers the operation performed on this young girl as the most efficient remedy in such a case. If the idea of cauterizing the vessels is disagreeable to the patients, the vessels of the clitoris might be tied, as are those of the penis after amputation. (_Nosog. Chirurg._, second edition, 1808; vol. iv., p. 326.) The following, which is similar to the preceding, but more remarkable in some respects, was published in the Journal of Surgery, by Graefe:-- “The subject of this case was born in 1807, and grew very well, till the age of fourteen months, when she became ill: for eight days, she was affected alternately with constipation, diarrhœa, and vomiting. She remained sick till she was two years old, and did not walk till she was four. She, however, never learned to talk, and exhibited symptoms of idiocy. This idiocy resisted the most varied treatment, progressively increased, and the patient was finally reduced to a state below the brute. She swallowed her feces, and passed hour after hour in a corner, her tongue lolling from her mouth.