Proof for One of Stephen Maturin's Theories

[ozfille]

I was listening to the Science Show on the ABC's Radio National and heard this snippet of conversation -

Robyn Williams: A bit of a liability, having testicles really, isn't it.
Roger Short: It really is I think, yes. It's a short life but a merry one.
Robyn Williams: Roger Short is Professor of Physiology at Monash University. And from that

Comments

[ariss_tenoh]

The willy show? *dies laughing*

[ozfille]

Well as Robyn Williams said, they felt they had to present the show in order to ensure genital balance and gonad diversity in that they had featured the Vagina Museum in Britain a few weeks before.

Here is a link if you want to listen to the program -
The Vagina Museum

[ozfille]

I believe Stephen first posited this theory in The Ionian Mission after treating a case of mumps in a midshipman. Mumps when contracted in puberty or as an adult for males can make them sterile if the virus infects the testicles. He proposed mumps as a more humane way of providing castrati for operas or choirs.

He is talking to a fellow intelligence agent when he described how concerned the other officers and Jack were to find this out -

'Such anxiety!' said Stephen, smiling at the recollection. 'Such uneasiness of mind! One might have supposed it was a question of the bubonic plague. I urged them to consider how very little time was really spent in coition, but it had no effect. I spoke of the eunuch's tranquility and peace of mind, his unimpaired intellectual powers - I cited Narses and Hermias. I urged them to reflect that a marriage of the minds was far more significant than mere copulation. I might have saved my breath: one could almost have supposed that seamen live for the act of copulation

[amaraal]

Which man would? LOL
It's their greatest fear - losing their penis. Only those born without one can not understand LOL

[ozfille]

No, it means in this case that the testes do not work due to the inflammation caused by the mumps, not the removal of his penis. Even Stephen is not that strange.

[rifleman_s]

The Willy Show ??? This I MUST listen to . . . :D

[ozfille]

It is both informative and amusing.