Owing to the high death rate, the survivors were sold at high prices either to Turkey or to Persia The physicians to the harem inspected the eunuchs on arrival to be certain that both penis and testes had been removed and reexamined them every few years to be certain that nothing was amiss 7.
The eunuchs entered the court service at the lowest rank and passed successively through the grades of novice, middle grade, and highest rank. Some took to learning and literature and served as tutors to the royal children; others rose to high administrative ranks Some eunuchs were said to have lived in the palace of Topkapi in Istanbul after the royal family had moved to other palaces 28 , and after the Turkish revolution the eunuchs continued to be devoted servants until the royal family was sent into exile in March of Medical studies on the Ottoman court eunuchs.
Hikmet and Regnault appear to have made the first medical observations on the eunuchs in Istanbul in During the first world war Ferdinand Wagenseil had been assigned as a physician to the German Red Cross Hospital in Istanbul, where he took care of a yr-old eunuch from the harem who died after a febrile illness presumably typhus and subsequently examined 10 additional eunuchs, most of whom had voiding difficulties An autopsy was performed on the man who died; the others average age, 43 yr; average duration of castration, 34 yr were subjected to detailed anthropological measurements and physical examinations, and skull x-rays were obtained on four of them.
Because the findings in the various studies overlap and are complementary, they will be discussed together. Enlargement of the pituitary. Tandler and Grosz obtained an x-ray of the skull in a yr-old Skoptzy man, who had been castrated at age 10 yr and observed that the sella turcica was grossly enlarged The average duration of castration was the same in the 3 groups studied by Koch 46 yr , but the average age at which the castration was performed 11 yr was younger in the group with the largest pituitaries.
In his Istanbul study Wagenseil reported that 2 of 4 skull x-rays obtained revealed enlargement of the pituitary with thinning of the dorsum sella; the average age at castration was 11 yr, and the average duration of castration was 44 yr in these 2 men In the same study the pituitary was normal at autopsy in the yr-old man who had been castrated for an uncertain duration The reason for the apparent discrepancy between the findings in the Chinese eunuchs and those in the Skoptzy and the Ottoman eunuchs is not clear, but it is of interest that the average age at which castration was performed was older in the Chinese group average age at castration, 18 yr; less than a fourth had been castrated before age 14 yr.
There is in addition at least one instance in which a large gonadotropin-secreting pituitary adenoma developed 35 yr after a man was castrated for cryptorchidism Skeletal changes.
Tandler and Grosz described failure of closure of the epiphyses in the skeleton of a eunuch 39 and subsequently in a yr-old Ottoman eunuch who had been castrated at age 8 yr 12 Koch reported that thinning of the bones of the skull was evident by x-ray in all of the Skoptzy men examined and that kyphosis was common Fig. Likewise, Wagenseil observed that 20 of the 31 Chinese eunuchs had kyphosis of the spine Fig. These observations appear to have been made before it was recognized that kyphosis is a manifestation of severe osteoporosis in women In the Wagenseil study, men with kyphosis averaged 59 yr of age and had an average duration of castration of 42 yr, whereas the men who did not have kyphosis were slightly younger average age, 54 yr and had a slightly somewhat shorter average duration of castration 33 yr Involvement of the spine is common in men with osteoporosis of various etiologies 41 , and in view of the fact that bone mineral density decreases progressively with time after castration, particularly in the first few years 42 , it is surprising that kyphosis was not even more common in the Chinese eunuchs and the Skoptzy.
Furthermore, an increased incidence of fractures does not appear to have been reported in the eunuchs, and Wagenseil had not observed kyphosis in his earlier study of eunuchs in Istanbul The reason for the discrepancy between the Turkish study and the other studies is not clear.
The Turkish eunuchs were somewhat younger average age, 44 yr , and were either Ethiopian or Sudanese in origin and might have had higher initial bone densities Alternatively, osteomalacia due to vitamin D deficiency was common in Northern China in the early years of this century 44 , and vitamin D deficiency might have contributed to osteopenia in the Chinese eunuchs and possibly in the Skoptzy.
Photograph demonstrating kyphosis in a yr-old Skoptzy man who had been castrated at age 15 yr. Photograph demonstrating kyphosis and gynecomastia in eight Chinese eunuchs.
The average age of these men was 56 yr, and the average time lapsed since castration was 38 yr. Reprinted from Wagenseil Hikmet and Regnault reported that the breasts in the Ottoman court eunuchs became large and pendulous 30 Although not commented on by either author, gynecomastia is also evident in 5 of 9 photographs of Skoptzy men published by Koch 13 and in 7 of 14 photographs of Chinese eunuchs published by Wagenseil 19 Fig.
Furthermore, Wu and Gu reported that 9 of the 26 subjects in their study had breast enlargement 25 , These observations of gynecomastia in castrated men are in keeping with the subsequent report by Heller, Nelson, and Roth that approximately half of men with functional prepubertal hypogonadism develop gynecomastia In hypogonadal men, gynecomastia develops when estrogen formed by extraglandular aromatization of adrenal androgens is sufficient to cause breast enlargement in the face of profoundly low testosterone values The reason that gynecomastia develops in some but not all men with primary hypogonadism is not known.
Apparent disappearance of the prostate. Furthermore, it has been known since the 19th century that prostatic hyperplasia does not develop in prepubertal castrates and that castration causes regression of the hyperplastic prostate Hikmet and Regnault reported that the prostate became atrophic in the Ottoman court eunuchs However, the report by Wu and Gu that the prostate was completely impalpable in 21 of 26 Chinese eunuchs and very small in the other 5 25 , 26 was unexpected and implies that viability of the gland throughout life requires the continued presence of gonadal hormones, presumably androgens.
It is possible that very small prostates were missed on physical examination by Wu and Gu 25 , Alternatively, it is possible that disappearance of the prostate is a function of time after castration, as the duration of castration in their study was much longer than that in any other report, recognizing that the duration of castration in the subset of men with barely palpable prostates 55 yr did not differ from that of the group overall 54 yr.
It is to the credit of the pioneering physician scientists involved that useful medical information was obtained about the long term effects of castration, under circumstances that must have been difficult, from the study of these now extinct groups of castrated men, and it is impressive that all their findings osteoporosis, failure of closure of the epiphyses, reactive pituitary hyperplasia, shrinkage of the prostate, and development of gynecomastia have been confirmed subsequently by studies of individuals or small groups of individuals with various forms of hypogonadism.
One question of interest concerning castration in men cannot be resolved from the available data, namely the issue as to whether the life span of men is shorter than that of women because of the presence of testes or the absence of ovaries and menstruation 5. Indeed, there are no valid data indicating that castration has any effect on life span of men. It is of some interest that no mention appears to have been made of the relation between castration and singing in any of the literature concerning the Chinese, Ottoman, or Skoptzy eunuchs, whereas there was a long tradition in Italy that associated the castrated state with phenomenal singing by men both in choirs and the opera 2.
The probable reasons for this apparent discrepancy are several. Consequently, it is difficult to interpret the literature on the subject in medical terms.
Second, in the instances in which castration was performed, only boys with extraordinary singing ability were chosen for such a procedure, and it is likely that singing ability would be no different in men selected for castration using other criteria than in the population at large.
Cindy Karolikowski, Reference Librarian of the Shiffman Medical Library in Detroit, provided invaluable assistance in the initiation of these studies, and the assistance of Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Reference Librarian in the Historical Collections of the New York Academy of Medicine Library, made it possible for us to broaden their scope.
Translations from German were made by one of the authors C. Zimmern for aid with the French translations. Cumming ED. Melicow MM. NY State J Med. Barnes J , ed. Princeton : Princeton University Press; — Nowakowski H. Ergebnisse der inneren Medizin und Kinderheilkunde. Hamilton JB. Recent Prog Horm Res. Bremer J. New York : Macmillan; 63— Penzer NM. London : Harrap; — Pelikan E. Grass KK.
Pittard E. Kolarz W. London : Macmillan; — Tandler J , Grosz S. Die Skopzen. Arch Entwickl Mech Org. Google Scholar. Koch W. Veroffentlichungen Kreigs Konstitutionspathol. Anderson MM. Buffalo : Promethus. Stent, CG. London: Arlington Books, pp —, Korsakow W. Deutsche Med Wochenschrift. Matignon J-J. Arch Clin Bordeaux. Shanghai : National Quarantine Service; — Wagenseil F. Z Morphol Anthropol. Johnston RF. Hong Kong : Oxford University Press; — Jay JW. Can J Hist.
Kates GN. It should be noted that despite the loss of their genitalia, eunuchs were still very much capable of gaining considerable amounts of influence and power in the court. In China, the fall of the Han Dynasty can partly be blamed on the eunuch faction in the imperial court that proved to be holding the strings behind the child emperor.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, boys who had been castrated were used as opera singers called castrati. Some of these would eventually grow up to serve their monarchs in the courts.
As the imperial dynasties of China and Turkey began to collapse in the 20th century, the practice of eunuchs came to an end too. In Turkey, the eunuchs continued to serve the imperial court until the end, and ultimately were seen as a symbol of corrupted imperial decadence. The top eunuch ended up executed by the Young Turks, though his second-in-command, named Nadir Agha, cooperated with the revolutionaries and lived peacefully as a dairy farmer afterwards.
In China, as the Qing were finally ousted from power, Sun Yaoting would become the last surviving eunuch of China, being consulted frequently by writers and filmmakers about imperial life until his death in Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.
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In the Tang era [ CE], eunuchs played a significant role in court life and bureaucracy, with the Chief Eunuch being in charge of the military. In the fifteenth century, the Muslim-born eunuch Zheng He commanded the world's largest armada on naval exhibitions throughout Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and Africa. Within the Ottoman empire, there was also an explicit use of slave eunuchs at court, as influenced by the customs of the Byzantine empire.
As recounted in George Junne's The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire , the Ottomans incorporated a racial element to the use of eunuchs by allowing black eunuch-slaves brought it from Africa access to the harem. White eunuchs were not allowed this. The use of black eunuchs continued until the early 20th century. One of the attractive things about eunuchs used either as soldiers or as court servants was the lack of sexual and reproductive threat; they would never have sons that could threaten the allegiance of their fathers or put the court at risk.
Yet, time after time, eunuchs did rise to lofty positions, making the idea of their powerlessness a common misconception. On Game of Thrones, the many historical roles and stereotypes attached to the eunuch are illustrated. We also see how eunuchs were converted into objects or tools to be wielded by others. Varys, on the other hand, is emasculated and effeminate, a feminized stereotype of one who gossips whispers and cannot necessarily be trusted.
Yet despite these perceived weaknesses, many of these characters have triumphed--just as some exceptional eunuchs did in the premodern era. Skeleton B21 from Ptolemaic era Quesna, Egypt. With its immature bones and tall stature, this When evaluating the portrayal of eunuchs on Game of Thrones, we must also address the central issue of how societies construct ideas of masculinity and gender, and how they marginalize those who do not fit within these definitions.
This is true for archaeologists addressing the historical record as well. After recent excavations at the ancient site of Quesna in Egypt produced two skeletons of individuals who may have been eunuchs, the lack of a gender binary in antiquity had to be addressed.
F orbes contributor and bioarchaeologist Kristina Killgrove noted : "As more archaeologists begin to identify potential intersex individuals in ancient graves, it is likely that our understanding of the highly variable and socially constructed nature of sex and gender roles in past populations will dramatically increase.
They can also remind us that the constant invective and emasculating slurs hurled at both real and imagined peoples who don't fit into a society's traditional notions of masculinity do not have to be perpetuated within our own society today. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes.
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