Camp
describes a stout German of thirty-five who, while suffering from
delirium tremens, fancied that his enemies were trying to steal
his genitals, and seizing a sharp knife he amputated his penis
close to the pubes. He threw the severed organ violently at his
imaginary pursuers. The hemorrhage was profuse, but ceased
spontaneously by the formation of coagulum over the mouth of the
divided vessels. The wound was quite healed in six weeks, and he
was discharged from the hospital, rational and apparently content
with his surgical feat.
Richards reports the case of a Brahman boy of sixteen who had
contracted syphilis, and convinced, no doubt, that "nocit empta
dolore voluptus," he had taken effective means of avoiding injury
in the future by completely amputating his penis at the root.
Some days after his admission to the hospital he asked to be
castrated, stating that he intended to become an ascetic, and the
loss of his testes as well as of his penis appeared to him to be
an imperative condition to the attainment of that happy
consummation. Chevers mentions a somewhat similar case occurring
in India.
Sands speaks of a single man of thirty who amputated his penis.
He gave an incomplete history of syphilis.
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