his bony framework develops rapidly; his shoulders grow broader; the soft down of his childish face is fast turning to a heavy beard. Soon we shall see in him the sturdy, withy, and mossy characteristics typified by the oak. But with the girl all development of bone or any thing dependent upon earthy properties nearly or quite ceases when puberty is reached. True, a little prior to and for a while after, she widens at the hips. Why? Because on each side of the womb there rises upward and sideward a tubular arm, called the Fallopian tube, with fimbria which might be likened to the ends of the fingers, and these grasp those important organs called the ovaries. (See fig. 142.) Well, these arms and these ovaries must have room; so, as the girl approaches the age of puberty, when the tubes and the ovaries must begin their labors, they demand elbow-room, and as the hard skull expands to the development of the brain, so the bony structure of what is called the pelvis widens, and it is consequently the generative organs of the woman that give her the peculiar breadth from hip to hip. But why does she grow physically fine, or what is called feminine, and the young man physically coarse, or what is termed masculine? I will tell you a secret, which the profession has not yet discovered; at least, I have never met with it in medical literature, and I claim for it priority of discovery. It is this: The ovaries of women absorb and throw away those earthy and calcareous properties which go to develop bone, flinty hair, and coarseness of fibre; while the testicles of men secrete these properties largely, and send them to the seminal vessels, from which, if not expended in coition, masturbation, or involuntary emissions, they are re-absorbed, and go to build up the coarse or masculine physical characteristics. What is called ovalation in women, or, in other words, the generation of seed in the ovaries, commences at the age of puberty, whether sexual connection occurs or not. These ova are continually forming, and as constantly passing off; if not through the Fallopian tubes and uterus, why then dropping into the cavity of the abdomen, from which they are absorbed and carried away with the waste matters. If dropped as last described, they cannot be re-absorbed as living material any more than the semen could be re-absorbed if forced by compression at the moment of emission into the bladder; or the blood of the bleeding nose returned to the circulation by injecting it into the nostrils. The ova, or eggs, once detached from their ovary, must go to waste unless met by the zoosperm of the male, and held in the uterus to form offspring. Then, during pregnancy, the ovaries cease their periodical waste of the earthy matters by arresting the process of ovalation, so that the developing fœtus may draw from the pregnant woman the material whereby to build up its cartilage, its bone, and its scalp of hair. This cessation of work on the part of the ovaries usually continues, too, during the period of nursing, when the food of the infant must possess its due supply of calcareous matter, and it is found by analysis that the ashes of the milk of women contain phosphate of lime, chloride of potassium, phosphate of magnesia, and phosphate of iron. At that period of woman's life when ovalation ceases, her physical characteristics have become too fixed to be materially changed by the arrest of the calcareous waste; although in perfect health, it is noticed that she does grow more muscular, and in some instances it may be observed that the upper lip becomes somewhat bearded after what is called "the change of life." Analysis of the semen of the male tends to sustain the foregoing theory, for, according to Vauquelin, it contains "900 parts of water, 60 of animal mucilage, 10 of soda, and 30 of calcareous phosphates." Observation of effects of the retention or loss of this fluid also sustains it, for, when by masturbation, sexual excess, or involuntary emissions, young men sustain a frequent loss of semen, they become effeminate, timid, less firm in bone and muscle, and generally less hairy about the face and body. Even the voice, in some instances, becomes less masculine. Then, again, observe the effects of the removal of those little organs which in the male economically save and return to the system when wanted, the calcareous or earthy matters, which they largely secrete. In Italy, in the eighteenth century, about four thousand boys were annually castrated for opera singing, and celebrating the mass! Why? Because the operation arrested the full development of the masculine voice. Without the ovaries of women to waste the coarser properties, their vocal organs became stronger and larger than women's; and consequently more efficient for singing those parts in music usually allotted to the female voice; but, without testicles to act as savings banks to the masculine properties, so that any part of the body could be supplied by "drafts payable at sight," the vocal organs could not obtain that development which gives to the voice of uncastrated men the intonation of heavy bass. These boys, too, grew up beardless, having more down than women, but none of the flinty beard so peculiar to men who have not lost the acorns of their manliness. Analysis of the contents of an egg also sustains my theory. The egg of any animal-fish, reptile, or bird-contains a large percentage of phosphate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, oxide of iron, and sulphur. I am not aware that any analysis of the egg, or ovum of the human female, has been made; but, under the microscope, its organization presents about the same appearance as that of the egg of other animals, whether viviparous or oviparous, even to containing a yolk; and it probably differs little, excepting in size, and in the quality of its animal matter. The effects of the loss of the ovaries on the viviparous animals is analo Hens gous to those happening under the same circumstances to women. losing their ovaries by disease or accident, are known to acquire tail feathers and spurs like the cock, and often to crow pretty well. I recollect meeting with one of these masculine hens in my boyhood, and I have heard of others. It is a fact known to naturalists, that in many instances female birds, after passing the age of fruitfulness, acquire the plumage and characteristics of the male. Women losing their ovaries, by disease or surgical operations. become, if the loss occurs at an early age, quite masculine, acquiring a heavy down upon the upper lip, and sometimes upon the cheeks. The voice and other characteristics also become more masculine. In all cases of women having much hair upon the upper lip, the ovaries or seed-generating organs are comparatively inactive, although, in many instances, their amative instincts are more intense. When amativeness is abnormally increased, and the activity of the ovaries diminished, in early womanhood, the masculine characteristics are not only more prominent so far as relates to muscle, bone, beard, and voice, but the breasts flatten and the clitoris obtains unusual size. I have met with a few cases of this kind in my prac tice, and I find, by investigation, that some centuries ago this species of deformity was so common in Egypt and Arabia, that the surgeons made a practice of amputating a portion of the clitoris. It became in some instances as large and prominent as the male organ. On the other hand, castration of the male develops the breasts. The practice of spaying female calves, or heifers, as they are called by the farmers and stock raisers, is practised in portions of Canada and elsewhere, for the purpose of making working cattle of them. Spaying, it should be understood, is the act of removing the ovaries, or destroying them. When thus operated upon, the organs which secrete and excrete, or throw away, the calcareous properties being removed, they grow more bony and muscular, and even their horns take more of the form and likeness of the stag. I am informed by a medical man to whom I have read a portion of this essay in manuscript, that he once saw a yoke of cattle composed of a male which had been castrated, and of a female which had been spayed, and that they appeared to be physically what are generally known as "matched cattle." This would be the natural result, for the absence of the ovaries of the female would prevent the castrated male from taking on all the characteristics of the female, and the absence of the testicles of the male would prevent the spayed female from developing all the characteristics of the male, and the two would consequently meet at a point of physical development intermediate between a bull and a cow. The reader can apply my philosophy to other animals castrated or spayed while young, and find that facts sustain my theory. There are innumerable opportunities to carry out or test the correctness of my philosophy for it is no new discovery that castration and spaying make the subjects on which the operations are performed more alike in their physical development; many are fully aware of the fact, but no one, so far as I am informed, has ever before attempted to account for it. It is left to the good sense of the reader to decide if I have not succeeded in doing so. Their Influence on Health. The divergent physical growth of the respective sexes caused by the influence of the sexual organs as explained in the preceding essay, if investigated fully with reference to its ultimate as well as proximate results, explains the phenomena of sexual attraction. The spiritual aura of two such distinct organizations must be correspondingly as unlike as their physical bodies. Before the age of puberty, and consequently before the testicles of the male begin to impart marked masculine characteristics, and the ovaries of the female the work of eliminating the coars er physical properties. the attraction between them is almost wholly platonic, and their mutual attentions and juvenile gallantries mainly in imitation of what they see going on between the older ones; but after arriving at puberty, and the machinery of sex begins its work in each, the delicately organized girl begins to feel like leaning against the broad shoulders of some favorite of the opposite sex, and absorbing from him the masculine magnetism which emanates from breath of lung and pore, and he, in return, drinks in her sublimated electrical aura, which his coarse physica organization is incapable of generating. All you who, blessed with health, "have crossed the line "-passed the age of pubescence-know all about this from experience, and I need not multiply words in any attempt to describe the desires, the emotions, the sensations which suddenly took possession of your whole being. I will simply remind you that the mag netism which emanates from a true representative of each sex, is as unlike in quality as the voice of each is dissimilar in sound. From which may be made the following deductions: First.-Women need the magnetism of men; it strengthens them; it sup plies something their peculiar organizations are incapable of producing Physicians who have never for a moment stopped to inquire why, recognize this fact, and often tell frail, debilitated, too effeminate young women, My advice to you is, get married," and many who read these pages can bear witness with me that this advice, judiciously taken, by the selection of a truly congenial companion, has saved a multitude of young women from debility and early death. No doubt, too, instances will arise in the mind of nearly every one, in which young women in declining health have suddenly exhibited physical improvement, when Madam Gossip began to rumor it about that this Miss Somebody had a beau. Secondly.-Man needs woman's magnetism; without it his surplus masculine elements either petrify and make him intolerably coarse and boorish, or they drive him to solitary vice and ultimate decay of his masculine qualities, if not, indeed, to final imbecility. How often physicians advise young men to marry, because their pent-up masculine elements have swept away the dam, carrying away, involuntarily, not only the calcareous or earthy properties of their semen, but the vital-I may almost say brain matterwhich it possesses, and which cannot consistently with health be expended thus wastefully. This is not always good advice, for it is better to repair the local weakness first, unless proper attention be given to it immediately after marriage, which precaution is too apt to be neglected under the supposition that natural indulgence will overcome the difficulty, while it too often simply conceals it. Lastly. The sexes need the magnetism of each other not simply for the benefit resulting from the interchange, but because there is good reason to believe that the union of male with female magnetism actually creates magnetism. That is, this union of the two distinct elements reproduces magnetism just as the union of the male germ with the female germ reproduces the human being. I know this is an hypothesis which is not perhaps, demonstrable, but it is a fact that may not have escaped the observation of some and the experience of other readers, that two bloodless and unmag. netic persons of opposite sex, if congenial, emerge from social or sexual inter course, filled with a magnetic power and vivacity which they did not pos |