[281]. Mahon, Medicine Legale, tom. iii. p. 54.
[282]. Philosophical Transactions for 1805, vol. 95, p. 225. See Mahon, Med. Leg. tom. ii. p. 54. Boerhaave relates the story of a Sow gelder in Spain, who in a fit of passion removed the ovaries of his daughter, and that she in consequence lost all her sexual characters and propensities.
[283]. See Sir Henry Halford’s Paper on the Climacteric Disease. Med. Trans, vol. iv, p. 316.
[284]. “A proprement parler, nous vieillissons des l’instant que nous commençons à cesser d’être jeunes; ou plutôt les memes causes qui amènent notre dévelopement préparent notre destruction, dès l’instant même de la naìssance.” Foderé Trait de Medicine Legale, tom. 1, p. 26.
[285]. This is erroneously supposed to be paralytic, they evidently originate, says Dr. Darwin, from the too quick exhaustion of the lessened quantity of the spirit of animation, for they only exist when the affected muscles are excited into action, as in lifting a glass to the mouth, or in writing, or in keeping the body upright, and cease again, when no voluntary exertion is attempted.
[286]. Darwin’s Zoonomia. Class iii. 2. 1. 2.
[287]. See Observations on a Course of Anatomy of Marchetti at Padua by Mr. Ray. Phil. Trans. No. 307, p. 2283.
[288]. Traite de Anatomie, Tom. iii. p. 29.
[289]. Spermatol. p. 393.
[290]. Histor. Anatom. Med. Tom. ii. p. 334.