Knott says that ablation of the ovaries is a time-honored custom
in India, and that he had the opportunity of physically examining
some of the women who had been operated on in early life. At
twenty-five he found them strong and muscular, their mammary
glands wholly undeveloped, and the normal growth of pubic hairs
absent. The pubic arch was narrow, and the vaginal orifice
practically obliterated. The menses had never appeared, and there
seemed to be no sexual desire. Micklucho-Maclay found that one of
the most primitive of all existing races--the New
Hollanders--practiced ovariotomy for the utilitarian purpose of
creating a supply of prostitutes, without the danger of burdening
the population by unnecessary increase. MacGillibray found a
native ovariotomized female at Cape York who had been subjected
to the operation because, having been born dumb, she would be
prevented from bearing dumb children,--a wise, though primitive,
method of preventing social dependents.
Castration has long been practiced, either for the production of
eunuchs, or castrata, through vengeance or jealousy, for
excessive cupidity, as a punishment for crime, in fanaticism, in
ignorance, and as a surgical therapeutic measure (recently, for
the relief of hypertrophied prostate).
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