CHAPTER XI.
TUBO-LIGATURE.
_The fertility of the criminal a greater danger to society than his depradations._--_Artificial sterility of women._--_The menopause artificially induced._--_Untoward results._--_The physiology of the Fallopian tubes._--_Their ligature procures permanent sterility._--_No other results immediate or remote._--_Some instances due to disease._--_Defective women and the wives of defective men would welcome protection from unhealthy offspring._ There is a growing feeling that society must be protected, not so much against the criminal as against the fertility of the criminal, and no rational, practicable, acceptable method has as yet been devised.
The operations on men to induce sterility have been discussed and dismissed as unsatisfactory.
But analogous operations may be performed on women.

And if women can be sterilized by surgical interference, whence comes the necessity of sterilizing both?
Oophorectomy, or removal of the ovaries is analogous to castration.

It is an equally safe, though a slightly more severe and complicated operation.
It can be safely and painlessly performed, the mortality in uncomplicated cases being practically nil.
The changes physical and mental are not so grave as in the analogous operation on the opposite sex, and they vary considerably at different ages and in different cases.

The later in life the operation is performed the less the effect produced.

At or after the menopause (about the 45th year) little or no change is noticeable.
In many, and especially in younger women however, grave mental and physical changes are induced.