History of circumcision from the earliest times to the present : $b Moral and physical reasons for its performance, with a history of eunuchism, hermaphrodism, etc., and of the different operations practiced upon the prepuceRemondino, P. C. (Peter Charles)
Religion
History of circumcision from the earliest times to the present : $b Moral and physical reasons for its performance, with a history of eunuchism, hermaphrodism, etc., and of the different operations practiced upon the prepuce
Remondino, P. C. (Peter Charles)
Circumcision
In a previous part of this chapter I have alluded to the very
appropriate arrangement which formerly existed when music-teachers were
eunuchs, and that our higher circles of society would do well to employ
eunuchized coachmen, especially if possessed of susceptible and elopable
daughters; but, from the accounts given by Mondat, it would seem that
they are not as safe as might at first be imagined. However, they could
not be as dangerous as the chief eunuch of the Grand Cherif of Mecca and
increase the population to the same extent; but I should judge that they
might be a very demoralizing moral element if introduced into modern
society. If eunuchs must be employed, it can easily be understood why
the Turk and Chinese prefer the real, clean-cut article. The New York
"Four Hundred" should make a note of this, as in their present thirst
for European aristocratic notions, coats of arms and titles, there is no
telling how soon they may cross over into Oriental customs and run a
harem, in which case it would be sad to have them make any mistakes in
the quality and ability of the eunuch.
Dr. Gardner W. Allen has furnished the American profession with a
faithful translation of the valuable work of Professor Ultzmann on
"Sterility and Impotence." In this, we have a clear and intelligent
dissertation that explains the above conditions, and I am only surprised
that the observations of Mondat have not developed such explanations
before, as the principle was fully explained in practice fifty years ago
by the Montpellier physician. According to Ultzmann, there is a form of
fecundating impotence in persons otherwise well provided with an
apparent complete apparatus, an impotence which he terms _potentia
generandi_. He states, however, that this form of impotence was not
recognized until a few years ago, citing the fact that females have had,
as a rule, to bear all of the blame for the unfruitfulness of the
family, and that they have been accordingly subjected to all manner of
operations, general and local treatment, even to being sent to watering
places and sanatoria where red-headed male attendants are employed, to
say nothing of the prayers, intercessions, pilgrimages, and novenas to
the holy shrines, as mentioned in the chapter on the holy prepuce.
Ultzmann observes that a man may be perfectly able to go through the
procreative or, rather, the copulative act, even to the great
satisfaction of all parties concerned, and yet be perfectly impotent; he
even goes further, by observing that there are cases in which copulation
may take place without any fluid whatever being ejaculated. He mentions
two such cases at pages 87 and 116 of his book. In the first instance
the ejaculated fluid is precisely as that observed in such cases as
those of the eunuchs and of Velutti, mentioned by Mondat, and consisted
of an azooespermic discharge, made up mainly from the secretion of the
seminal vesicles, the accessory glands of the urethra, the prostate, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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