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By 1960, the number of Chinese eunuchs had dwindled to 26 living in Beijing. In that year, a team of urologists was allowed to examine the last surviving Chinese eunuchs. That study was published in the medical literature ("The Prostate in Eunuchs" Wu Chieh Ping and Gu Fang-Liu, EORTC Genitourinary Group Monograph 10, Wiley-Liss, Inc., 1991). The urologists found that in more than 80% of these men, who had an average age of 72 and who had been eunuchs for an average of 54 years, the prostate was nonpalpable. A summary of that study is reproduced here.
The authors conclude, "This is probably the largest series of human beings followed for such a long period of time to confirm that testicular hormone is essential for the development and preservation of the prostate."
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