Today I ran across a very strange article that contains a bit of interesting and useful information. The article, published in 1929, is titled Dementia Precox as an Endocrinopathy with Clinical and Autopsy Reports. "Dementia precox" is an obsolete psychiatric diagnosis. The condition, today, would most often be diagnosed as Adolescent Onset Schizophrenia." In the years surrounding 1900, it was often attributed to sexual causes (as were other psychiatric disorders).

James Lincoln McCartney, the author of this article, quotes several earlier researchers on the supposed causes and correlates of dementia precox. One source reported "infantile type of genitalia in 72 per cent of 176 cases of dementia precox." Another found "pathologic changes in the testes and semen." Yet another stated that "apparently the testes...cease growing about the age of puberty...."

After surveying the literature, McCartney gets to his own observations of eunuchs in China, which he visited in 1925-27. Without any proper psychiatric work-up, he states that "the examination of these eunuchs showed them to be almost typical prototypes of what is considered "dementia precox...."

His subjects were 20 Chinese eunuchs who had served in the palace, but who had been thrown out to live in abject poverty after the revolution, and 3 Russian Skoptsy who had fled the Russian Revolution. All had been castrated in childhood. Some retained their penis and others did not. After going through the standard set of prepubertal eunuch physiological features (which have been discussed several times on the Archive), he notes that all were of average, or above average, intelligence. Living, as they were in "a hand-to-mouth existence," they "all appeared very introspective and apathetic."

What is most interesting, and an addition to the literature on prepubertal eunuchs, is that the eunuchs who retained their penis often "indulged in sexual intercourse with prostitutes...." Castrated before puberty, their penis would have been the size of that of a young boy. "They all said that they indulged in homosexual practices and other perversions." (It was 1929, afterall.)

Ten of the 23 had or had had gonorrhea and one had an active case of syphilis at the time of his examination.

What is important here is that all 23 of these eunuchs, castrated before puberty, were sexually active.

No doubt proving that the brain is the largest sexual organ?

Humans are social beings, they need love, affection and physical contact. Sex is the best way to get all of these at once.

Lust doesn't drive eunuchs to have sex but the desire to remain human.

Castration doesn't make eunuchs less humans.

This does make sense, I think.

0f course the eunuchs without mental illness wouldn't come to light but I think those too would somewhat mirror the ones that had showed up on the streets and into the system for study.

Very interesting. This did make me look twice what you typed in bold. One would think castration before puberty would almost certainly kill off a persons sexuality.