Hall on Adolescence, pt. 3

[JesusA (imported)]

In general, the psychic as well as the physical effects of castration are less the later the latter operation. The ox and gelding, as is known, do not entirely lose their libido, but it is greatly reduced. Guinard has shown that in two or three per cent of cases castration of horses does not prevent coition. In men libido of a falsetto kind may occur. Flood, who operated on twenty-sic idiot boys, all but two of whom were under seventeen, and half under fourteen, reports sexual appetite missing in all but two cases, and in these being only spasmodic, although erections, and in one case masturbation, persisted slightly at intervals. In all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. Moebius, who has given us the fullest history of the effects of castration, lays emphasis on the mental enfeeblement.<p>Facts in this field thus show the dependence of a very important group of not only physical but psychic qualities upon the presence of this quasi-gland, the loss of which seems to change both the intensity and the nature of character more than the loss of one and perhaps both legs, or any other removable part.<p>There has been much recent discussion in this country concerning the desirability of this operation. On the whole, the testimony seems conclusive that epileptic seizures may thus be made both less frequent and less severe. All but two of Flood's cases were epileptics, and only five were though to need even diminished does of bromide after the operation. Dr. W. O. Henry designates as a crime of medical men their failure to urge legislation to prevent the marriage of criminals, or else to have them castrated. In 1897 a bill was introduced into the Michigan Legislature to insure the castration of inmates of the State Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic before their discharge, in the case of those convicted of rape or of a felony for the third time, but it did not pass. The House Committee on Public Health of the Kansas Legislature lately reported favorably on a bill doing away with prison for rape and substituting castration, and was supported by the Social Purity League of Topeka. It has been claimed that ten other States would follow the lead of Kansas. Dr. Daniels, of Texas, and the late Dr. Wey, of Elmira, have urged castration for sexual perversion and for habitual criminals, and Dr. Boal, of Illinois, recommend it and ovariotomy for the punishment of crime and the reformation of criminals. It has also bee often urged of late, instead of lynching, for negroes who commit rape in the South.<p>This may well give us pause. The case of dangerous idiots is certainly very different from that of criminals. Felony has not fixe meaning and varies greatly in different lands and in different States, and few jurists would venture to define it. It is heinous and used to involve loss of all possessions, but now often includes crimes punishable by death or imprisonment, and is sometimes due to excessive vigor in wrong directions which subjective inhibition or objective deterrents have not yet repressed, and which we may yet learn to divert to right directions. How far law should undertake human stirpiculture by such methods involves some of the deepest problems of biology, of the rights of personality and of society, and perhaps penal colonies or other new ways of treating crime, the possibility of new human varieties, etc.<p>Hall, G. Stanley. 1907. Adolescence: its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company, vol. 1, pp. 424-30. [Hall is considered to be the founder of the study of adolescence in America. This two volume work brings together a lifetime of his research and was a standard reference as late as I was in college. His work still has great impact in the field. Flood, whom he mentions more than once, was a physician whose experiments in castrating boys suffering from epilepsy was much quoted for decades. Flood found that castrating young boys reduced significantly the frequency of their masturbation and he recommended it highly for those institutionalized. Our knowledge both of human physiology and of the "detrimental effects" of masturbation have changed dramatically since 1907.]<p>--Jesus

[JesusA (imported)]

In general, the psychic as well as the physical effects of castration are less the later the latter operation. The ox and gelding, as is known, do not entirely lose their libido, but it is greatly reduced. Guinard has shown that in two or three per cent of cases castration of horses does not prevent coition. In men libido of a falsetto kind may occur. Flood, who operated on twenty-sic idiot boys, all but two of whom were under seventeen, and half under fourteen, reports sexual appetite missing in all but two cases, and in these being only spasmodic, although erections, and in one case masturbation, persisted slightly at intervals. In all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. Moebius, who has given us the fullest history of the effects of castration, lays emphasis on the mental enfeeblement.<p>Facts in this field thus show the dependence of a very important group of not only physical but psychic qualities upon the presence of this quasi-gland, the loss of which seems to change both the intensity and the nature of character more than the loss of one and perhaps both legs, or any other removable part.<p>There has been much recent discussion in this country concerning the desirability of this operation. On the whole, the testimony seems conclusive that epileptic seizures may thus be made both less frequent and less severe. All but two of Flood's cases were epileptics, and only five were though to need even diminished does of bromide after the operation. Dr. W. O. Henry designates as a crime of medical men their failure to urge legislation to prevent the marriage of criminals, or else to have them castrated. In 1897 a bill was introduced into the Michigan Legislature to insure the castration of inmates of the State Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic before their discharge, in the case of those convicted of rape or of a felony for the third time, but it did not pass. The House Committee on Public Health of the Kansas Legislature lately reported favorably on a bill doing away with prison for rape and substituting castration, and was supported by the Social Purity League of Topeka. It has been claimed that ten other States would follow the lead of Kansas. Dr. Daniels, of Texas, and the late Dr. Wey, of Elmira, have urged castration for sexual perversion and for habitual criminals, and Dr. Boal, of Illinois, recommend it and ovariotomy for the punishment of crime and the reformation of criminals. It has also bee often urged of late, instead of lynching, for negroes who commit rape in the South.<p>This may well give us pause. The case of dangerous idiots is certainly very different from that of criminals. Felony has not fixe meaning and varies greatly in different lands and in different States, and few jurists would venture to define it. It is heinous and used to involve loss of all possessions, but now often includes crimes punishable by death or imprisonment, and is sometimes due to excessive vigor in wrong directions which subjective inhibition or objective deterrents have not yet repressed, and which we may yet learn to divert to right directions. How far law should undertake human stirpiculture by such methods involves some of the deepest problems of biology, of the rights of personality and of society, and perhaps penal colonies or other new ways of treating crime, the possibility of new human varieties, etc.<p>Hall, G. Stanley. 1907. Adolescence: its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company, vol. 1, pp. 424-30. [Hall is considered to be the founder of the study of adolescence in America. This two volume work brings together a lifetime of his research and was a standard reference as late as I was in college. His work still has great impact in the field. Flood, whom he mentions more than once, was a physician whose experiments in castrating boys suffering from epilepsy was much quoted for decades. Flood found that castrating young boys reduced significantly the frequency of their masturbation and he recommended it highly for those institutionalized. Our knowledge both of human physiology and of the "detrimental effects" of masturbation have changed dramatically since 1907.]<p>--Jesus

[JesusA (imported)]

In general, the psychic as well as the physical effects of castration are less the later the latter operation. The ox and gelding, as is known, do not entirely lose their libido, but it is greatly reduced. Guinard has shown that in two or three per cent of cases castration of horses does not prevent coition. In men libido of a falsetto kind may occur. Flood, who operated on twenty-sic idiot boys, all but two of whom were under seventeen, and half under fourteen, reports sexual appetite missing in all but two cases, and in these being only spasmodic, although erections, and in one case masturbation, persisted slightly at intervals. In all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. Moebius, who has given us the fullest history of the effects of castration, lays emphasis on the mental enfeeblement.<p>Facts in this field thus show the dependence of a very important group of not only physical but psychic qualities upon the presence of this quasi-gland, the loss of which seems to change both the intensity and the nature of character more than the loss of one and perhaps both legs, or any other removable part.<p>There has been much recent discussion in this country concerning the desirability of this operation. On the whole, the testimony seems conclusive that epileptic seizures may thus be made both less frequent and less severe. All but two of Flood's cases were epileptics, and only five were though to need even diminished does of bromide after the operation. Dr. W. O. Henry designates as a crime of medical men their failure to urge legislation to prevent the marriage of criminals, or else to have them castrated. In 1897 a bill was introduced into the Michigan Legislature to insure the castration of inmates of the State Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic before their discharge, in the case of those convicted of rape or of a felony for the third time, but it did not pass. The House Committee on Public Health of the Kansas Legislature lately reported favorably on a bill doing away with prison for rape and substituting castration, and was supported by the Social Purity League of Topeka. It has been claimed that ten other States would follow the lead of Kansas. Dr. Daniels, of Texas, and the late Dr. Wey, of Elmira, have urged castration for sexual perversion and for habitual criminals, and Dr. Boal, of Illinois, recommend it and ovariotomy for the punishment of crime and the reformation of criminals. It has also bee often urged of late, instead of lynching, for negroes who commit rape in the South.<p>This may well give us pause. The case of dangerous idiots is certainly very different from that of criminals. Felony has not fixe meaning and varies greatly in different lands and in different States, and few jurists would venture to define it. It is heinous and used to involve loss of all possessions, but now often includes crimes punishable by death or imprisonment, and is sometimes due to excessive vigor in wrong directions which subjective inhibition or objective deterrents have not yet repressed, and which we may yet learn to divert to right directions. How far law should undertake human stirpiculture by such methods involves some of the deepest problems of biology, of the rights of personality and of society, and perhaps penal colonies or other new ways of treating crime, the possibility of new human varieties, etc.<p>Hall, G. Stanley. 1907. Adolescence: its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company, vol. 1, pp. 424-30. [Hall is considered to be the founder of the study of adolescence in America. This two volume work brings together a lifetime of his research and was a standard reference as late as I was in college. His work still has great impact in the field. Flood, whom he mentions more than once, was a physician whose experiments in castrating boys suffering from epilepsy was much quoted for decades. Flood found that castrating young boys reduced significantly the frequency of their masturbation and he recommended it highly for those institutionalized. Our knowledge both of human physiology and of the "detrimental effects" of masturbation have changed dramatically since 1907.]<p>--Jesus

[JesusA (imported)]

In general, the psychic as well as the physical effects of castration are less the later the latter operation. The ox and gelding, as is known, do not entirely lose their libido, but it is greatly reduced. Guinard has shown that in two or three per cent of cases castration of horses does not prevent coition. In men libido of a falsetto kind may occur. Flood, who operated on twenty-sic idiot boys, all but two of whom were under seventeen, and half under fourteen, reports sexual appetite missing in all but two cases, and in these being only spasmodic, although erections, and in one case masturbation, persisted slightly at intervals. In all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. Moebius, who has given us the fullest history of the effects of castration, lays emphasis on the mental enfeeblement.<p>Facts in this field thus show the dependence of a very important group of not only physical but psychic qualities upon the presence of this quasi-gland, the loss of which seems to change both the intensity and the nature of character more than the loss of one and perhaps both legs, or any other removable part.<p>There has been much recent discussion in this country concerning the desirability of this operation. On the whole, the testimony seems conclusive that epileptic seizures may thus be made both less frequent and less severe. All but two of Flood's cases were epileptics, and only five were though to need even diminished does of bromide after the operation. Dr. W. O. Henry designates as a crime of medical men their failure to urge legislation to prevent the marriage of criminals, or else to have them castrated. In 1897 a bill was introduced into the Michigan Legislature to insure the castration of inmates of the State Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic before their discharge, in the case of those convicted of rape or of a felony for the third time, but it did not pass. The House Committee on Public Health of the Kansas Legislature lately reported favorably on a bill doing away with prison for rape and substituting castration, and was supported by the Social Purity League of Topeka. It has been claimed that ten other States would follow the lead of Kansas. Dr. Daniels, of Texas, and the late Dr. Wey, of Elmira, have urged castration for sexual perversion and for habitual criminals, and Dr. Boal, of Illinois, recommend it and ovariotomy for the punishment of crime and the reformation of criminals. It has also bee often urged of late, instead of lynching, for negroes who commit rape in the South.<p>This may well give us pause. The case of dangerous idiots is certainly very different from that of criminals. Felony has not fixe meaning and varies greatly in different lands and in different States, and few jurists would venture to define it. It is heinous and used to involve loss of all possessions, but now often includes crimes punishable by death or imprisonment, and is sometimes due to excessive vigor in wrong directions which subjective inhibition or objective deterrents have not yet repressed, and which we may yet learn to divert to right directions. How far law should undertake human stirpiculture by such methods involves some of the deepest problems of biology, of the rights of personality and of society, and perhaps penal colonies or other new ways of treating crime, the possibility of new human varieties, etc.<p>Hall, G. Stanley. 1907. Adolescence: its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company, vol. 1, pp. 424-30. [Hall is considered to be the founder of the study of adolescence in America. This two volume work brings together a lifetime of his research and was a standard reference as late as I was in college. His work still has great impact in the field. Flood, whom he mentions more than once, was a physician whose experiments in castrating boys suffering from epilepsy was much quoted for decades. Flood found that castrating young boys reduced significantly the frequency of their masturbation and he recommended it highly for those institutionalized. Our knowledge both of human physiology and of the "detrimental effects" of masturbation have changed dramatically since 1907.]<p>--Jesus

[JesusA (imported)]

In general, the psychic as well as the physical effects of castration are less the later the latter operation. The ox and gelding, as is known, do not entirely lose their libido, but it is greatly reduced. Guinard has shown that in two or three per cent of cases castration of horses does not prevent coition. In men libido of a falsetto kind may occur. Flood, who operated on twenty-sic idiot boys, all but two of whom were under seventeen, and half under fourteen, reports sexual appetite missing in all but two cases, and in these being only spasmodic, although erections, and in one case masturbation, persisted slightly at intervals. In all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. Moebius, who has given us the fullest history of the effects of castration, lays emphasis on the mental enfeeblement.<p>Facts in this field thus show the dependence of a very important group of not only physical but psychic qualities upon the presence of this quasi-gland, the loss of which seems to change both the intensity and the nature of character more than the loss of one and perhaps both legs, or any other removable part.<p>There has been much recent discussion in this country concerning the desirability of this operation. On the whole, the testimony seems conclusive that epileptic seizures may thus be made both less frequent and less severe. All but two of Flood's cases were epileptics, and only five were though to need even diminished does of bromide after the operation. Dr. W. O. Henry designates as a crime of medical men their failure to urge legislation to prevent the marriage of criminals, or else to have them castrated. In 1897 a bill was introduced into the Michigan Legislature to insure the castration of inmates of the State Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic before their discharge, in the case of those convicted of rape or of a felony for the third time, but it did not pass. The House Committee on Public Health of the Kansas Legislature lately reported favorably on a bill doing away with prison for rape and substituting castration, and was supported by the Social Purity League of Topeka. It has been claimed that ten other States would follow the lead of Kansas. Dr. Daniels, of Texas, and the late Dr. Wey, of Elmira, have urged castration for sexual perversion and for habitual criminals, and Dr. Boal, of Illinois, recommend it and ovariotomy for the punishment of crime and the reformation of criminals. It has also bee often urged of late, instead of lynching, for negroes who commit rape in the South.<p>This may well give us pause. The case of dangerous idiots is certainly very different from that of criminals. Felony has not fixe meaning and varies greatly in different lands and in different States, and few jurists would venture to define it. It is heinous and used to involve loss of all possessions, but now often includes crimes punishable by death or imprisonment, and is sometimes due to excessive vigor in wrong directions which subjective inhibition or objective deterrents have not yet repressed, and which we may yet learn to divert to right directions. How far law should undertake human stirpiculture by such methods involves some of the deepest problems of biology, of the rights of personality and of society, and perhaps penal colonies or other new ways of treating crime, the possibility of new human varieties, etc.<p>Hall, G. Stanley. 1907. Adolescence: its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company, vol. 1, pp. 424-30. [Hall is considered to be the founder of the study of adolescence in America. This two volume work brings together a lifetime of his research and was a standard reference as late as I was in college. His work still has great impact in the field. Flood, whom he mentions more than once, was a physician whose experiments in castrating boys suffering from epilepsy was much quoted for decades. Flood found that castrating young boys reduced significantly the frequency of their masturbation and he recommended it highly for those institutionalized. Our knowledge both of human physiology and of the "detrimental effects" of masturbation have changed dramatically since 1907.]<p>--Jesus