the
glans penis before erection, as is often the case in masturbation, the
penis is gripped by the prepuce so that it cannot sometimes be drawn
forward and inflammation with oedema results; this condition is called
_paraphimosis_, and may become dangerous. Secretions, urine and semen
accumulate and decompose in a phimosed prepuce, cause irritation and
lead to masturbation. All cases of phimosis should be operated upon in
infancy, by complete or partial circumcision.

In women, the number of diseases which prevent conception is much
greater than in man. The ovary may undergo cystic degeneration or
become the seat of a tumor; but affections of the uterus and vagina
cause more sterility than ovarian affections. This results chiefly
from catarrh and inflammation which destroy the spermatozoa before
they can reach the egg during its descent. Disorders of menstruation
have much less influence on fecundity. The womb sometimes remains in
an _infantile state_, which may also cause sterility. Other diseases
of the female sexual organs have a more general pathological
character and hardly influence sexual intercourse.

A method of rendering women sterile without castration (removal of the
ovaries) consists in interrupting the communication between the
ovaries and the womb by dislocation of the Fallopian tubes: this
avoids all the evil effects of castration.

Certain inflammations and displacements of the uterus and ovaries are
often the origin of pains, indispositions and nervous disorders in
women. Irregularity and pain in menstruation are a frequent cause of
neuroticism.

The hymen is seldom so strongly developed as to offer a serious
obstacle to coitus; but when this occurs it may be removed by a slight
operation. Young women often suffer from vaginismus, or painful spasms
occurring when an object, such as the finger or penis, is introduced
into the vagina.

Hermaphrodism in man is always pathological, extremely rare, and when
it exists nearly always incomplete. These cases are generally
incomplete mixtures concerning principally the correlative characters.
A double function only exists in legends. I have myself seen a
celebrated hermaphrodite named Catherine Hohmann who had a well-formed
testicle on the left side enclosed in a fold of skin which resembled
the larger lip of the vulva, while the penis was very short and
resembled a clitoris. This individual, who was baptized as a woman,
was certainly male on one side; on