lesson from the beast of the field can be applied
in all its details to the human subject; if man, without any
artificial or unnatural means would develop a full and complete
virility; if like the horse, he can maintain a strict continence for
months or even years without suffering any abatement of virility and
of physical powers in general. The unequivocal answer of the medical
profession to these questions would be in the affirmative.

An exact parallel to the gelding referred to above can be found in the
eunuch of the Orient. If the human male is castrated before puberty he
develops into a being as different from a virile man as the gelding is
different from the stallion;--a being whose physique resembles in many
respects that of a woman, and whose temperament manifests qualities of
cringing servility and lack of initiative.

The external secretion of the testes differs from the internal
secretion in containing spermatozoa; it may be that there are other
differences. It is, however, generally believed that one or more of
the substances found in the external secretion appear in the internal
secretion. If this is true, it must be evident that excessive sexual
indulgence or masturbation can draw away from the system this precious
vital substance that is necessary to produce or maintain the virility.

It cannot be assumed that the condition of virility once attained will
necessarily always continue--it must be maintained. To be maintained,
this vital substance produced by the testes must be continuously
absorbed into the blood. When once the man or boy understands this, it
must be evident to him that he has, to a certain extent, the making or
marring of his own virility; that it is not simply an inexhaustible
endowment of nature; but, like such a natural resource as a forest or
a coal mine, may be exhausted and will be exhausted if not husbanded
carefully.

It is a well known fact in the medical profession that the ovaries of
the female exert upon her development an influence analogous to that
which the testes exert on the development of the male. For that
reason, a surgeon should, under no condition, remove both ovaries
(sexual glands) unless they are diseased in such a way as to
necessitate their complete removal in order to save the life of the
individual. If a woman of twenty-five were to suffer the loss of both
ovaries, she would go very early into a condition of senile decay. If
a female before puberty is depr