Richards reports the case of a Brahman boy of sixteen who had contracted syphilis, and convinced, no doubt, that "nocit empta dolore voluptus," he had taken effective means of avoiding injury in the future by completely amputating his penis at the root.
Some days after his admission to the hospital he asked to be castrated, stating that he intended to become an ascetic, and the loss of his testes as well as of his penis appeared to him to be an imperative condition to the attainment of that happy consummation. Chevers mentions a somewhat similar case occurring in India.
Sands speaks of a single man of thirty who amputated his penis.
He gave an incomplete history of syphilis. After connection with a woman he became a confirmed syphilophobe and greatly depressed.
While laboring under the hallucination that he was possessed of two bodies he tied a string around the penis and amputated the organ one inch below the glans. On loosening the string, three hours afterward, to enable him to urinate, he lost three pints of blood, but he eventually recovered. In the Pennsylvania Hospital Reports there is an account of a married man who, after drinking several weeks, developed mania a potu, and was found in his room covered with blood. His penis was completely cut off near the pubes, and the skin of the scrotum was so freely incised that the testicles were entirely denuded, but not injured. A small silver cap was made to cover the sensitive urethra on a line with the abdominal wall.
There is a record of a tall, powerfully-built Russian peasant of twenty-nine, of morose disposition, who on April 3d, while reading his favorite book, without uttering a cry, suddenly and with a single pull tore away his scrotum together with his testes. He then arose from the bank where he had been sitting, and quietly handed the avulsed parts to his mother who was sitting near by, saying to her: "Take that; I do not want it any more." To all questions from his relatives he asked pardon and exemption from blame, but gave no reason for his act. This patient made a good recovery at the hospital. Alexeef, another Russian, speaks of a similar injury occurring during an attack of delirium tremens.
Black details the history of a young man of nineteen who went to his bath-room and deliberately placing his scrotum on the edge of the tub he cut it crossways down to the wood. He besought Black to remove his testicle, and as the spermatic cord was cut and much injured, and hemorrhage could only be arrested by ligature, the testicle was removed. The reason assigned for this act of mutilation was that he had so frequent nocturnal emissions that he became greatly disgusted and depressed in spirit thereby. He had practiced self-abuse for two years and ascribed his emissions to this cause. Although his act was that of a maniac, the man was perfectly rational. Since the injury he had had normal and frequent emissions and erections.
Orwin mentions the case of a laborer of forty who, in a fit of remorse after being several days with a prostitute, atoned for his unfaithfulness to his wife by opening his scrotum and cutting away his left testicle with a pocket knife. The missing organ was found about six yards away covered with dirt. At the time of infliction of this injury the man was calm and perfectly rational. Warrington relates the strange case of Isaac Brooks, an unmarried farmer of twenty-nine, who was found December 5, 1879, with extensive mutilations of the scrotum; he said that he had been attacked and injured by three men. He swore to the identity of two out of the three, and these were transported to ten years'
penal servitude. On February 13, 1881, he was again found with mutilation of the external genitals, and again said he had been set upon by four men who had inflicted his injury, but as he wished it kept quiet he asked that there be no prosecution. Just before his death on December 31, 1881, he confessed that he had perjured himself, and that the mutilations were self-performed.
He was not aware of any morbid ideas as to his sexual organs, and although he had an attack of gonorrhea ten years before he seemed to worry very little over it. There is an account of a Scotch boy who wished to lead a "holy life," and on two occasions sought the late Mr. Liston's skilful aid in pursuance of this idea. He returned for a third time, having himself unsuccessfully performed castration.
A case of self-mutilation by a soldier who was confined in the guard-house for drunkenness is related by Beck. The man borrowed a knife from a comrade and cut off the whole external genital apparatus, remarking as he flung the parts into a corner:
"Any----fool can cut his throat, but it takes a soldier to cut his privates off!" Under treatment he recovered, and then he regretted his action.
Sinclair describes an Irishman of twenty-five who, maniacal from intemperance, first cut off one testicle with a wire nail, and then the second with a trouser-buckle. Not satisfied with the extent of his injuries he drove a nail into his temple, first through the skin by striking it with his hand, and then by butting it against the wall,--the latter maneuver causing his death.