horectomy operation
(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman
with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the
degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before
undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable
effects.

At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine
woman in all her characteristics--with well-formed breasts, menstruating
freely and feminine in instincts--he says "mind." The intermediate
grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the
masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others
desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively
shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity
take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of
bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define--the
human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr
Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine
woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and
maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are
usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their
metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character:
indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin
which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a
woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she
usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with
flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong
reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..."

The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being
abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known
facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and
maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present,
but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual
basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation
experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single
lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female
sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they
were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in
human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell