ower animals, and
Kennedy, in mentioning the case of a hydrocephalic child who ate off
its entire under lip, speaks also of a dog, of cats, and of a lioness
who ate off their tails. Kennedy mentions the habit in young children
of biting the finger-nails as an evidence of infantile trend toward
self-mutilation. In the same discussion Collins states that he knew of
an instance in India in which a horse lay down, deliberately exposing
his anus, and allowing the crows to pick and eat his whole rectum. In
temporary insanity, in fury, or in grief, the lower animals have been
noticed by naturalists to mutilate themselves.

Self-mutilation in man is almost invariably the result of meditation
over the generative function, and the great majority of cases of this
nature are avulsions or amputations of some parts of the genitalia. The
older records are full of such instances. Benivenius, Blanchard,
Knackstedt, and Schenck cite cases. Smetius mentions castration which
was effected by using the finger-nails, and there is an old record in
which a man avulsed his own genitals. Scott mentions an instance in
which a man amputated his genitals and recovered without subsequent
symptoms. Gockelius speaks of self-castration in a ruptured man, and
Golding, Guyon, Louis, Laugier, the Ephemerides, Alix, Marstral, and
others, record instances of self-castration. In his Essays Montaigne
mentions an instance of complete castration performed by the individual
himself.

Thiersch mentions a case of a man who circumcised himself when
eighteen. He married in 1870, and upon being told that he was a father
he slit up the hypogastrium from the symphysis pubis to the umbilicus,
so that the omentum protruded; he said his object was to obtain a view
of the interior. Although the knife was dirty and blunt, the wound
healed after the removal of the extruding omentum. A year later he laid
open one side of the scrotum. The prolapsed testicle was replaced, and
the wound healed without serious effect. He again laid open his abdomen
in 1880, the wound again healing notwithstanding the prolapse of the
omentum. In May of the same year he removed the right testicle, and
sewed the wound up himself. Four days later the left was treated the
same way. The spermatic cord however escaped, and a hematoma, the size
of a child's head, formed on account of which he had to go to the
hospital. This man acted under an uncontrollable impulse to mutilate
himself, and claimed that