the trentching or cutting away any member of the body.

This word is also extended to statues and buildings, where any part is wanting, or the projection of any member, as a cornice or an impost, is broken off. It is sometimes also used in a more immediate manner for castration: (See CASTRATION and EUNUCH). The practice of this sort of mutilation is of various kinds: The Hottentots are said to cut away one testicle from their children, upon supposition that they are thereby made lighter and more active for running. In other countries, poor people completely mutilate their boys, to prevent the misery and want which would attend their offspring. Those who have nothing in view but the improvement of a vain talent, or the formation of a voice which disfigures nature, as was the case formerly in Italy, are contented with cutting away the testicles. But in some countries of Asia, especially among the Turks and in a part of Africa, those whom jealousy... jealousy inspires with distrust, would not think their wives safe in the custody of such eunuchs: They employ no slaves in their seraglios who have not been deprived of all the external parts of generation.

Amputation is not the only means of accomplishing this end. Formerly, the growth of the testicles was prevented, and their organization destroyed, by simple rubbing, while the child was put into a warm bath made of a decoction of plants. Some pretend that by this species of castration the life is in no danger. Amputation of the testicles is not attended with much danger; but complete amputation of the external parts of generation is often fatal. This operation can only be performed on children from seven to ten years of age. Eunuchs of this kind, owing to the danger attending the operation, cost in Turkey five or six times more than others. Chardin relates, that this operation is so painful and dangerous after fifteen years of age, that hardly a fourth part of those by whom it is undergone escape with life. Pietro della Valle, on the contrary, informs us, that in Persia those who suffer this cruel and dangerous operation as a punishment for rapes and other crimes of this kind, are easily cured though far advanced in life; and that nothing but atres is applied to the wound.

There are eunuchs at Constantinople, throughout all Turkey, and in Persia, of a grey complexion: they come for the most part from the kingdom of Golconda, the peninsula on this side the Ganges, the kingdoms of Assau, Aracan, Pegu, and Malabar. Those from the gulf of Bengal are of an olive colour. There are some white eunuchs who come from Georgia and Circassia, but their number is small. The black eunuchs come from Africa, and especially from Ethiopia. These, in proportion to their horrible appearance, are the most esteemed and most dear. It appears that a very considerable trade is carried on in this species of men; for Tavernier informs us, that when he was in the kingdom of Golconda in the year 1657, 22,000 eunuchs were made in it. In that country they are sold at the fairs.

Eunuchs who have been deprived only of their testicles, continue to feel a titillation in what remains, and to have the external sign even more frequently than other men. But the part which remains is very small, and continues almost in the same state in which it was when the operation was performed during childhood.

If the different kinds of eunuchs are examined with attention, it will be found almost universally, that castration and its consequences have produced greater or less changes on their shape and appearance, independent of its physical effects.

Eunuchs, says M. Withof, are timid, irresolute, fearful, suspicious, and unsteady: And this seems to hold generally, though not universally, or without exceptions; (see the article EUNUCH). The reason is, that their blood has not received all the necessary preparation in passing through the spermatic vessels. Thus being deprived of the properties of males, they participate of the dispositions of females, and their very soul is of an intermediate sex. They are not, however, without advantages: They become larger and fatter than other men; but they sometimes grow to a disgusting size. Though oily substances are more abundant in eunuchs, they are likewise less subject to gout and to madness than men who have a greater quantity of blood and of splenetic humours. The abundant circulation of oily liquor prevents roughnesses or inequalities in the trachea and palate. This, joined to the flexibility of the epiglottis and of the other organs of the voice, makes it so sonorous and extensive, and at the same time so sweet, that it is almost impossible for eunuchs to pronounce distinctly the letter R. Is this factitious advantage a sufficient consolation to these unhappy men for the barbarity of those who have dared to sacrifice nature at the shrine of avarice? It is impossible to reflect on all the motives for making eunuchs without a sigh of pity and regret; and yet it must not be supposed that this abominable cruelty is always infallibly attended with that advantage which is sometimes expected from it. Of 2000 victims to the luxury and extravagant caprices of the art, hardly three are found who unite good talents with good organs. The other languishing and inactive wretches, are outcasts from both sexes, paralytic members in the community, an useless burden upon the earth, by which they are supported and nourished. But let us pay the tribute which is due to that virtuous pontiff Pope Clement VIII, who, listening to the voice of modesty and humanity, procribed and abolished this detestable and infamous practice. Mutilation he declared was the most abominable and disgraceful of crimes.