The influence which absolute impotence, or loss of virility, exercises upon sexual crime, is well illustrated by the moral degeneration of the Skopzens of Russia, a sect of religious fanatics who, voluntarily castrated for purposes of piety, become after the operation, for the most part, either half-mad enthusiasts or criminals by instinct; and a careful reading of the seventh chapter of this work (Sexual Perversion) will convince us that impotence exercises a more profound influence upon the uxakly constituted individual, than upon the strong man, in whom it has occurred as a traumatic or pathological sequence.

In those spinal neuroses which affect the erection-center, reflexly, from peripheral sensory irritation, as in gonorrhea; or directly, from organic irritation of the brain; or from spinal disease; or from involvement of the erection-center itself, as in the case of cantharides poisoning; the symptoms are, of course, peculiar to each case, and ought to offer little diagnostic difficulty to the competent physician. But it need hardly be remarked that they are all entirely beyond the scope of legal training, or knowledge; and, even with the experienced physician, it requires unusual powers of analysis, and physiological knowledge, to discriminate between, say, incipient paralysis of the central nerve-tracts, and the milder form of impotence, or, more properly, diminished excitability of the sexual-center, due to overstimulation, as in habitual masturbation, or the excessive and prolonged use of alcohol, bromides or other drues.