There was a pause. A pen scratched upon paper. Then, “Why not castration, doctor?” a voice asked waggishly, causing me to start, a pain tearing through me. “There goes your love of blood again,” the first voice laughed. “What’s that definition of a surgeon, ‘A butcher with a bad conscience’?” They laughed. “It’s not so funny. It would be more scientific to try to define the case. It has been developing some three hundred years—”
