indeed,
less strongly developed than in normal persons, but which do not appear
at all when the castration has been effected at a still earlier age. The
varying views of different authors regarding the influence of castration
in early life upon the development of the secondary sexual characters
may readily be explained with reference to the individual differences
that may be observed in the functional activity of the testicles in
different males before the power of reproduction has been acquired. Just
as in boys the capacity for reproduction, and in girls the function of
menstruation, does not appear at a fixed and definite age, so also in
the case of the other processes that come into being under the influence
of the activity of the reproductive glands, we have to reckon with such
individual differences. For this reason, in persons who have been
castrated at the same age, the subsequent course of development may vary
to some degree, notwithstanding the apparent identity of the determining
factor in each case. In some, the pelvis, the beard, the voice, and the
mental qualities, develop in normal fashion; in others, there is
interference with the development of one or all of these characters. In
certain cases, the bodily structure is influenced by castration at an
age when the mental development is no longer affected. This explains the
fact that many oriental eunuchs, in whom castration is commonly effected
shortly before the seventh or eighth year of life, while they exhibit
the bodily configuration characteristic of the eunuch, are nevertheless
capable of experiencing heterosexual feelings, and even passionate love.

In Western countries we rarely have an opportunity of studying the full
consequences of castration, for with us the operation is hardly ever
performed so early in life as it is in the East; and the reports that
are available concerning oriental and other foreign eunuchs are to a
large extent untrustworthy. None the less, from such reports, and from
accounts that have come down to us from earlier days in the West (more
especially in the case of the boys who were formerly castrated in Italy
for the preservation of the soprano voice), we obtain evidence amply
sufficient to justify the statements made above. Even more convincing
are observations made on the lower animals. For example, in horses which
have been castrated at a very early age the sexual impulse remains
undeveloped; but we have to contrast with th