We see, therefore, how extremely important is the function of the testis.
Its significance is not alone for the race, it is not simply concerned
with the formation of the spermatozoa which share equally with the ova the
honor of making the mankind of the future. It also has a separate and
distinct function which has reference to the individual. It elaborates
those internal secretions which stimulate and maintain the physical and
mental characters, constituting all that is most masculine in the male
animal, all that makes the man in distinction from the eunuch. Among
various primitive peoples, including those of the European race whence we
ourselves spring, the most solemn form of oath was sworn by placing the
hand on the testes, dimly recognized as the most sacred part of the body.
A crude and passing phase of civilization has ignorantly cast ignominy
upon the sexual organs; the more primitive belief is now justified by our
advancing knowledge.
In these as in other respects the ovaries are precisely analogous
to the testes. They not only form the ova, but they elaborate for
internal use a secretion which develops and maintains the special
physical and mental qualities of womanhood, as the testicular
secretion those of manhood.
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