the Chinese is a somewhat primitive
procedure. According to Dr. Morache, in his account of China in the
"Dic. Ency. des Sciences Medicales," the operation is as follows: "The
patient, be he adult or child, is, previous to the operation, well fed
for some time. He is then put in a hot water bath. Pressure is exercised
on the penis and testes, in order to dull sensibility. The two organs
are compressed into one packet, the whole encircled with a silk band,
regularly applied from the extremity to the base, until the parts have
the appearance of a long sausage. The operator now takes a sharp knife,
and with one cut removes the organ from the pubis; an assistant
immediately applies to the wound a handful of styptic powder, composed
of odoriferous raisins, alum, and dried puffball powder
(boletus-powder). The assistant continues the compression till
haemorrhage ceases, adding fresh supplies of the astringent powders; a
bandage is added and the patient left to himself. Subsequent haemorrhage
rarely occurs, but obliteration of the canal of the urethra is to be
dreaded. If at the end of the third or fourth day the patient does not
make water, his life is despaired of. In children the operation succeeds
in two out of three cases; in adults, in one-half less. Poverty is the
cause which induces adults to allow themselves to be thus mutilated. It
is said to be difficult to distinguish these last from ordinary Chinese
men. Adult-made eunuchs are much sought after, as they present all the
attributes of virility without any of its inconvenience."
The study of the evolutionary moves or processes passed by eunuchism in
its relation to music and the drama tends to rob these otherwise
civilizing and enlightened arts of the aureoles of poetry and gentility
with which they have been surrounded. From Bergmann we learn that the
practice originated in the Orient, where female voices were held in
higher esteem in singing, and where the profane songs that accompanied
the dance were chanted by women. The Hebraic regulations permitted
neither women nor eunuchs to sing in their temples. With the
establishment of the early Christian Church in Oriental countries, more
or less of the ancient Judaic customs were retained, and in addition a
too literal interpretation of the words of St. Paul was adhered to,
which said that women should not be _heard_ in the Church. The Oriental
Church from these reasons long remained in a quandary; according to the
cer
|