The Male Climacteric.

The idea that a man passes through a period comparable to what in the woman is known as the menopause, is no new one. In ancient medicine a grand climacteric was recognized and was placed at the age of sixty-three. Those modern writers who recognize its existence are inclined to place it earlier; Max Thorek in the early fifties, Max Marcuse between forty-four and fifty-four, and Havelock Ellis even so early as thirty-eight. But before discussing the merits of these different assessments , it will be useful to investigate what is meant by the term " male climacteric." By what signs can its arrival be recognized? What is its underlying pathology ? When one looks at the whole life of an individual man from birth to death, at first sight, it appears that the processes of growth and decay proceed without pause or interruption-one stage imperceptibly leading on to another, so that it is impossible to say when one ends and andther begins. But a closer scrutiny suggests that our first impressions are incorrect. The onset of changes at certain periods of life is comparatively abrupt. This is particularly obvious in the case of the period known as the onset of puberty. At the age of twelve we see a child, unconscious of sex, free of restraints, natural, and entirely occupied with the affairs of childhood. Within a year all this may be changed, and in place of a child we may find a miniature adult, a young girl, self-conscious, reserved, awkward in the presence of her one-time companions, given to blushing, full of unresolved problems. Puberty has marked a definite step forward in the long journey from birth to death. A period of intense activity and disturbance in the circle of endocrine glands has been followed by a comparatively abrupt change in bodily form and psychology. Although no other step is so clearly marked as that of puberty, I believe that, if one held the view that the various stages of development and decay were ushered in by a series of jerks rather than by a gradual transition, there could be found much evidence to support this thesis. How often are parents struck by the sudden realization that their infant has, at a bound, become a child! How often do we feel with a shock that some relative or friend has, in a brief period of time, taken on …