[DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF MITOCHONDRIA IN THE RAT LIVER AFTER CASTRATION].

Eugenics became an organized movement in Hungary in 1914 with the establishment of the Section of Eugenics within the Association of Social Sciences (Társádalomtudományi Egyesület). Its secretary, the prominent biologist István Apáthy jr., defined the aims and the place of eugenics within the sanitation as well as the necessary steps of organization which should be taken in Hungary. It was especially some Hungarian psychiatrists: Márk Goldberger, Lajos Naményi, Gyula Donáth and László Benedek, the Hungarian Representative of the Committee of International Eugenical Organisations who after World War I urged eugenical law which envisaged voluntary sterilization. According to the opponents of eliminative eugenics--like Károly Csörsz, one of the first distinguished medical geneticists in Hungary--sterilization had not been scientifically based yet, because the ways and the probability of heredity of nervous and mental diseases, except for Huntington chorea, had not been explored yet. The outstanding neurologist, Karl Schaffer also opposed the sterilization bill worked out by Professor Benedek, so it was rejected by the National Council of Public Health in 1932 and was not discussed by the Hungarian Parliament either. In spite of its illegality, some sterilizations were executed, for example with the consent and the request of parents in the case of mentally retarded female to stop her reproduction. Only positive eugenics was legally supported by the marriage advisory bureau in the capital, but the interest in it was rather limited in interwar Hungary.

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PubMed2002

[Urological pathology in the memoires and critiques of the Literary Meetings of the San Carlos Royal College in Madrid (1788-1834)].

OBJECTIVE: The urologic cases presented for discussion to the Board of the San Carlos Royal College of Surgery (Madrid), created in 1787 by royal decree of King Carlos III for the education and training of surgeons attending the general population, are reviewed. Their contents and the stage of the art of urology in that period are analyzed. METHODS: 303 records in the archives of the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutensis University of Madrid, presented to the Board of the San Carlos Royal College of Surgery for discussion at their regular meetings on Thursday, during the period spanning 1788-1834, were reviewed. A complete list of urologic cases and a transcription of the description of a bladder procedure are presented. RESULTS: 69 urologic cases were found. Lithiasis was the most common, followed by voiding disorders that encompass all urethrovesical conditions. Complications, such as fistula and abscess, account for a large part of the cases reported, followed by testicular and scrotal pathology (basically hydrolece), veneral disease and their complications of stricture and infection. The surgical techniques mainly comprised lithotomy (with analysis of the different perineal approaches), bladder punction for retention, urethrotomy, circumcision and surgical treatment of hydrocele by castration or punction. CONCLUSIONS: The urologic cases reviewed by the Board of the San Carlos Royal College of Surgery were basically those of the most common conditions of that period, mainly lithiasis and voiding disorders arising from urethrovesical conditions and their complications, as well as diseases of the male genitalia. The surgical techniques focussed mainly on the description of stone removal by the perineal approach and castration or punction for hydrocele. The reports and reviews followed the principles of galenic and hippocratic medicine. The impact of European advancements were only observed in the latter stages. Undoubtedly, these records and reviews have made an outstanding contribution to the 18th and early 19th century Spanish medical literature.

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PubMed1999

[The classical healer as a castrator. The involvement of doctors in castration practices of the Graeco-Roman world].

The elimination of the testicles of boys and men, what we call castration, was frequently practised in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Probably it was sometimes done by laymen, but certainly also sometimes carried out by doctors. This article provides an overview of classical texts concerning castration practices in which doctors were involved, and explores the background of these specific castration practices. It appears that doctors not only cooperated in several practices that were (thought to be) beneficial for their patients, but also in the involuntary castration of healthly slave boys, mostly for the benefit of slave-owners, and hardly to the advantage of their patients.

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