Of the innate or acquired causes of venereal excitement, and of the rules of preservation connected with them.—Some individuals seem, as it were, marked by their organization, to become victims of venereal excesses. In them, the genital sense is excited, and exercises great power, long before the usual period of its manifestation. In others, on the contrary, this sense is not excited until late: in fact, it is so slight, that even this excitement may be doubted. In the present state of the science, these differences can by no means be accounted for. In many cases, however the great development of certain organs, the increase of their vitality or their diseased state exercise considerable influence on the strength and precocity of the venereal sense.
Gall, and the phrenologists of his school, place amativeness in the cerebellum. They consider this organ as the legislator of the sexual parts, the seat of physical love; and assert that the differences in the mass and vitality of this portion of the brain, correspond exactly to the differences of the intensity of the genital desires. We will proceed to mention the different facts on which these physiologists formed their opinion.
Comparative anatomy furnishes them with no argument worthy of mention: in fine, facts contradictory to Gall’s opinion may be derived from numerous classes of animals who have been deprived of their cerebellum, and yet have exercised the act of reproduction. This opinion applies only to man, and the mammalia resembling him. The relation between the development of the cerebellum and that of the genital organs, has furnished a more plausible reason: it has been adduced as an argument, that, in the encephalon, the fibres of the cerebellum are the last to appear distinctly; and this organ is not perfect, till from the age of eighteen to twenty-six years. A remark of Sœmmering, also, has been adduced, to show that the cerebellum, at the period of puberty, is to the cerebrum as one to five, while in infancy it is only as one to seven.
We have already seen that the genital sense is more powerful in males than in females. But it is said positively, that the cerebellum is commonly smaller in females than in males.
Phrenologists have also sought to establish a reciprocity of action between the genital organs and the cerebellum, by means of the results of castration, and also the influence which the development of the cerebellum may have on the testicles. Castration, (say they,) while it opposes the development of the sense of venery, prevents the cerebellum from gaining the size it would otherwise have attained. Observe, too, how much broader the neck in the bull is, than in the ox. They have also advanced, that if castration occurs only at a period when the cerebellum acquires its development, the genital sense may survive this operation; that, in some cases, it may reduce this organ to a state approximating atrophy; that the removal of one testicle from an animal, whatever may be its species, may produce atrophy, or some alteration in the lobe of the cerebellum, on the side opposite to the testicle removed. They have added, that the alteration of the cerebellum had caused a wasting of the testicles; and that, in the cases where one of the lobes only was disorganized, the testicle of the opposite side was alone affected. According to Gall and his disciples, the size of the cerebellum is discerned externally by the size and breadth of the nucha. They remark, that this part of the skull is generally more convex in males than in females—in entire animals, than in those who have been castrated—in early life, and in those individuals who are distinguished for their salacity, more than in those who are not susceptible to the pleasures of love. Larrey pointed out to Gall a soldier, whose antipathy to females amounted to mania: the sight of a female caused in him violent convulsions, and almost fury. Spurzheim saw a similar instance in England. Now, in both of these individuals, the cerebellum was but slightly developed. The portraits of Newton, Charles XII., and Kant, according to Gall, by the narrowness of the neck, show that the organ of which we were speaking was but slightly developed in these great men, who history states had but little relish for venereal pleasures. Dispositions diametrically opposite, on the contrary, co-exist with an enlarged volume of the brain. The following is related by Gall:—
“A highly intellectual lady was affected from infancy with very passionate desires; and her careful education alone saved her from those excesses to which she was exposed by her violent temperament. When arrived at a more advanced age, she was left to herself. She attempted every mode to satisfy her burning passions; but enjoyment seemed only to irritate her. She was frequently almost in a state of mania. In despair, she left her house, quitted the city, and took refuge with her mother, in a desolate country, where the want of exciting objects, and the utmost severity, and the cares of gardening, prevented the evil. After a time, she returned again to a large city, was again threatened with relapse, and took refuge a second time with her mother. On returning, she came to see me at Paris, and complained to me in great despair. ‘On every side, I see images of luxury—in every place—at table, and even in my sleep, the demon pursues me. I shall either be mad, or die.’
“I told her briefly the natural history of the instinct of propagation. I called her attention to the form of her neck. Although her head was very large, yet the diameter of the nucha exceeded the distance from ear to ear. She formed an idea of the cause of her state. I advised her to visit her mother again; to vary her occupations, so as to diminish the activity of her cerebellum; to apply leeches to the nucha, to diminish the irritation of this organ; to avoid all stimulating meats and drinks, &c. &c.
“I have seen at Paris,” says the same author, “a boy, five years old, who seemed sixteen, in respect to his corporeal strength. His genital organs were perfectly developed; his beard was strong; his voice was rough and hoarse: in short, he presented all the signs of virility.”
Dr. Gall was struck, also, with the development of the cerebellum in a boy ten years old, who had been detained in a house of correction at Leipzick, for having violated a young girl. He had also seen at Paris a young mulatto, less than three years old, who was remarkable in the same respect. He made advances, not only to young girls, but to women, and urged them to consent to his desires. His sexual organs, with the exception of long-continued erections, exhibited nothing remarkable. As he was surrounded by girls who indulged him, he died of consumption before he was five years old. His cerebellum was unusually developed; the rest of the head was of the common size. Gall has related other instances of the kind.
A case published by Dr. Chauffard, of Avignon, deserves to be stated here. This physician accompanied the prefect in 1823, in his tour to the departments, to examine those young men who wished to be discharged from military service. A stout farmer, with coarse beard and hair, and disagreeable odor, was undressed, being, as it was said, affected with a disease which he dared not name. It was at the close of December; the season was cold, and the room very chilly. No sooner was he undressed, than the penis began to swell. He was confused—he blushed—he turned his back to the assistants. He could not avoid the priapism; nor, finally, an emission of semen, which took place without a sensible diminution in the size of this organ. This man was ignorant and stupid, but he answered questions correctly. He said he was always tormented by continual erections, often followed by seminal emissions. He even admitted that he was accustomed to solicit them. His neck was short; broad, and thick; the posterior portion of the occipital bone presented a very marked slope: finally, the cerebellar portion of the cranium was very prominent, and much developed. This man was reformed. (Jour. univ. des Sc. Med., December, 1828.) We have also observed a very remarkable development of the posterior part of the skull, in a boy eight years old, who was addicted to masturbation for several years, and whose penis was almost constantly in a state of erection. This prominence so elongated the antero posterior diameter of the cranium, that the mother found it difficult to fit caps to his head.