Old Age Deferred: The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measuresLorand, Arnold
Science
Old Age Deferred: The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures
Lorand, Arnold
Hygiene; Longevity; Old age
The marvelous influence of the sexual glands on the mind and character
is at once apparent if we consider the aberration from the normal of the
castrated person. The authorities who have studied the eunuchs in Egypt
and the Skopze in Russia (a religious sect who adopt castration as a
tenet), found typical characteristics in these people that distinguished
them from the normal.
Thus, as a rule (and as stated by Moebius), the biography of remarkable
eunuchs of the old and middle ages shows that they are entirely
deficient in courage, which seems to be dependent entirely on the
possession of testicles, and the same fact may be noted also in the case
of the lower animals. Thus, an ox is a coward compared to a bull, and an
ordinary horseman prefers to ride a mare rather than a stallion. The
best means of taming certain animals is by depriving them of their
testicles at an early age. Intelligence also is much influenced, not
only by the thyroid, as already shown, but by the testicles. Thus
persons of literary or other fame, such as artists and the like, have
become impaired in their capacity after castration: Abelard, for
example.
Moebius, in the history of the world, could find no castrates of great
intelligence. Knowledge gained by diligent labor is not referred to
here. We merely wish to express our conviction that great ideas, such as
are found in men of genius, are impossible in men devoid of their
testicles; and it appears out of the question to imagine such men as
Napoleon, Goethe, or others, as castrates. On the contrary, we are
inclined to believe that such great men had a private life that would
have rendered them unfit for the position of superintendent of an
American Sunday School.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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