The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1894-10-12

for an IucurabIe AIaIady.
The Republican press has saw fit to
circulate a supplement relating
course of treatment by DR.. Pitcher, of
several inmates of the Winfield imbe-
Gle asylum, who were addicted to the
practice of self-abuse. Since then me-
dicaI journals from all over the coun-
try have published articles vindicating
DR.. Pitcher and claiming that his treat
ment was the only one that could be
successfully and humanely used. This
discussion may, but should not, shock
ears polite. The following query and
answer is from the Kansas Farmer, the
query was addressed to and answered
| by Henry W. Roby, M. D., who has
charge of the Family Doctor" depart
ment of the Kansas Farmer, an emin-
ent and thoroughly qualified practic-
ing and consulting physician of To-
peka, Kan:
FAMILY DocroR-Wil1 you kindly tell US whether
| the operation Of DR.. Pitcher on the boys in the
asylum at Winfield was humane and juStihable, or
crime and deserving of the penitentiary? E. B. Z.
The presumption of both law and
science is in favor of the doctor. I
have no personal acquaintance with
him and no knowledge of his skill and
| judgment, no knowledge of the condi-
lions of these particular boys, but the
presumption is in favor of the treat
ment said to have been administered.
Emasculation is not crime when done
to save a life, or to cure an insanity or
an imbecility, as it often is. It is no
crime when it is done to restrain a dis
eased boy from an otherwise incurable
tendency to destruction, either of
suicide or the sure damnatiOn of an
unchecked secret vice.
Gelding has been practiced all the
ages to restrain the vicious and furious
tendencies of animals. Without it in
our domestic animals thousands of hu-
man lives would annually be sacrificed
to the fury of mad bulls and stations.
Without it hogs would be hard to fat
ten. The markets of our great cities
are full of caponized fowls that are
made much more suitable for fooo than
the uncapOnized. Who would eat bull
beef or boar meat, when gelding can
make them fit for any table? Spaying
makes much finer hams and shoulders
and breakfast bacon out of a female
swine.
Castrates are very common in orien-
tai countries. HerodOtus says that in
Persia they we're especially priced for
famous general was an eunuch. The
histories of China, Persia, Greece and
Rome abound in instances of emascu-
lation for various purposes aside from
curing disease. From time immemorial
down to the days of Pope Leo XIII, the
vatican choir was supplied with male
soprano singers made such by castra-
ton. That custom is still very preva-
lent in Mohammedan countries. All
the harems and seraglios are guarded
by eunuchs. Many people all over the
world emaSculate themselves as a re-
ligious rite. That large and religious
sect in Russia called Skopzis are all
eunuchs. In the third century the
celebrated Origen instituted at Alex
andria f1OuriShing sect on that line,
taking his cue from Matthew xix, r.
The somewhat analogous practice of
circumcision has been an almost uni
versal Jewish religious ceremonial for
uncOunted years. 1t is supposed to be
a safeguard against certain infectious
diseases, as well as a sacriicial cere-
mony.
There is no just ground of belief that
the generative glands in the human
species are any more exempt from dis
ease and dangerous disorders than any
one of the other numerous glands, large
and small, in the human economy.
They are all subject to disease and
malfOrmation, and all alike must be
subjected at times to the mercies of
surgery in order that life and intellect,
or both, may be saved. These glands
are no more sacred or infallible than
the liver or spleen or kidneys or the
brain. All these must fall under the
surgeons hand in many instances that
life may be preserved and intellect |
maintained.
The sexual glands in both sexes are |
the very common seat of serious dis |
ease. They are the very common source |
of insanity and crime when their ply |
Biological activities are prevented or
reversed. Countless murders have been !
committed under the ardor and fury of |
a sexual pervert, and many nameless |
crimes and outrsges in domestic life |
have their origin in disordered sex
glands. Many suits for divorce in our |
courts would be avoided if all the peo- |
pie had perfectly normal reproductive |
glands. Thousands of invalid women
have been restored to health by the re-
moval of hopelessly diseased ovaries.
am quite sure that if given the au-
thority of law I could 60 through the
jails, asylums and prisons of this coun-
try and emasculate very large percen-
tage of the inmates and turn them out |
in perfect safety to society, where now
it would be the extreme of danger and
folly to relax their strict and grim re-
straint. Just as the fury of the war
horse is taken out of him by gelding,
so the fury of criminal is It would |
be most benefcent thing for society
and the social compact called the state
if all criminals were emasculated The
impulse to crime would be very largely
thereby and the reproduc-
ton of criminals would be stopped.
Who can measure in money or in
words the incalculable benefit to the
re if all criminals of both sexes were
thus prevented from spawning their
ilk in the great stream of human life?
Criminal? Nay! Nay! A Gods bles-
sing to the world, boon to all man
kind. Who keeps up the steady stream
of criminals from age to age? Criminal
progenitors largely. Who educates the
innocent and unguarded in the ways of
crime? The offsprings of criminals
who ought to have been rendered inca
pable Of reproduction
Society-the state-has the power
to protect itself against the fearful
prevalence of ravaging crime by any
we'll timed and well-adapted and hu-
name means that vic6ou1 con 5oxiSe