Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
The possession by every cell of primitive sexuality on which the
secretion of the sexual glands has little effect might be shown further
by consideration of the effects of grafting male genital glands on
female organisms. For such an experiment to be accurate it would be
necessary that the animal from which the testis was to be transplanted
should be as near akin as possible to the female on which the testis was
to be grafted, as, for instance, in the case of a brother and sister;
the idioplasm of the two should be as alike as possible. In this
experiment much would depend on limiting the conditions of the
experiment as much as possible so that the results would not be confused
by conflicting factors. Experiments made in Vienna have shown that when
an exchange of the ovaries has been made between unrelated female
animals (chosen at random) the atrophy of the ovaries follows, but that
there is no failure of the secondary sexual characters (_e.g._,
degeneration of the mammæ). Moreover, when the genital glands of an
animal are removed from their natural position and grafted in a new
position in the same animal (so that it still retains its own tissues)
the full development of the secondary sexual characters goes on
precisely as if there had been no interference, at least in cases where
the operation is successful. The failure of the transplantation of
ovaries from one animal to another may be due to the absence of family
relationship between the tissues; the influence of the idioplasm
probably is of primary importance.
These experiments closely resemble those made in the transfusion of
alien blood. It is a practical rule with surgeons that when a dangerous
loss of blood has to be made good, the blood required for transfusion
must be obtained from an individual not only of the same species and
family, but also of the same sex as that of the patient. The parallel
between transfusion and transplantation is at once evident. If I am
correct in my views, when surgeons seek to transfuse blood, instead of
being content with injections of normal salt solution they must take
the blood not merely from one of the same species, family and sex, but
of a similar degree of masculinity or femininity.
Experiments on transfusion not only lend support to my belief in the
existence of sex characters in the blood corpuscles, but they furnish
additional explanations of the failure of experiments in grafting
ovaries or testis on individuals of the opposite sex. The internal
secretions of the genital glands are operative only in their appropriate
environment of arrhenoplasm or thelyplasm.
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