Brinton names severe self-mutilators of this nature among the
ancient Mexican priests. Some of the Hottentots and indigenous
Australians enforced semicastration about the age of eight or
nine.
The Skoptzies, religious castrators in Russia, are possibly the
most famous of the people of this description. The Russian
government has condemned members of this heresy to hard labor in
Siberia, but has been unable to extinguish the sect. Pelikan,
Privy Counsel of the government, has exhaustively considered this
subject. Articles have appeared in Le Progres Medical, December.
1876. and there is an account in the St. Louis Clinical Record,
1877-78. The name Skoptzy means "the castrated," and they call
themselves the "White Doves." They arose about 1757 from the
Khlish or flagellants. Paul I caused Sseliwanow, the true
founder, to return from Siberia, and after seeing him had him
confined in an insane asylum. After an interview, Alexander I
transferred him to a hospital. Later the Councillor of State,
Jelansky, converted by Sseliwanow, set the man free and soon the
Skoptzies were all through Russia and even at the Court. The
principal argument of these people is the nonconformity of
orthodox believers, especially the priests, to the doctrines
professed, and they contrast the lax morals of these persons with
the chaste lives, the abstinence from liquor, and the continual
fasts of the "White Doves.
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