Virility

VIRILITY. - A particular age (v.) of life that follows the pubertal and post-pubertal or internubilo-pubertal phase and ends with old age (v.). G. Mariani defines it as the age of life characterized by the complete and harmonious development of the organism in relation to the stabilization, for both man and woman, of all primary and secondary sexual characteristics.

Its duration is variable, and characteristic of it is the state of stable equilibrium that comes to be established in the general metabolism (the ratio between the anabolic and catabolic phases) and in all the interorganic and neurohormonal correlations characteristic of each individual type (v.). Undoubtedly the phase of v. (or, better, of "maturity") is the longest and the most important in both man and woman. It is customarily divided into three stages: 1) increasing maturity (between the ages of 21 and 35 in woman, 25-28 and 40 in man), characterized by a progressive perfecting of all the various individual activities, especially the psychic ones, while the vegetative life is still fairly intense; 2) confirmed or constant maturity (between the ages of 35 and 48-50 in woman, 40 and 50-55 in man), the time of physical-psychological equilibrium in which the functions of the whole organism remain stationary: this stage corresponds more strictly to the concept of maturity set out above; 3) decreasing maturity (after the age of 48-50 in woman, 50-55 in man), which begins the descending parabola of life with phenomena of diminished activity both physical and psychic and passes imperceptibly into old age (v.); it is on the threshold of this age that the critical age of the climacteric manifests itself, especially in woman (v. CLIMACTERIC, AGE).

It is customarily held that an essential characteristic of v. is a strong excitation and an intense possibility of the use of sexual life, linked to the full activity of the gonads and to the complete development of the primary and secondary sexual characteristics; an inexact conception, inasmuch as the activity of the gonads, as regards the formative activity of the reproductive sexual elements, has already begun at the time of puberty (v. ADOLESCENCE); on the other hand, according to Kinsey's statistics, the maximum of erotic activity would take place before the age of 20, therefore at the time of puberty and during the internubilo-pubertal phase. Without denying the importance of the regular functioning of the gonads in the maintenance of full physical maturity in both man and woman, as the phenomena of aging that appear in women at the time of menopause show, all authors are agreed in maintaining that not only the gonads but all the endocrine glands are of particular importance in the preservation of maturity, especially the hypophysis and the adrenal gland. It suffices for this purpose to mention the phenomena of profound organic decay that occur in Simmonds' cachexia, with pluriglandular pathogenesis, or in Addison's disease, from atrophy of the adrenals (v. ENDOCRINE GLANDS). V. must not be confused with virilism, a pathological or at least paranormal state of the development of the woman who loses the characteristics of her own sex to assume those of the male sex, not only in the physical field but also in the psychic one; this in relation to a particular idiopathic and racial disposition or to endocrine dysfunction (adrenal virilism) or to the extinction of ovarian activity (climacteric virilism).

During the phase of v., in parallel with the perfecting of the individual's various somatic functions, the highest point of the evolution of the psychic faculties is reached, with the development and affirmation of the personality, intimately linked to the constitution (v.), temperament (v.) and disposition (v.) of the individual. The primitive apperceptive and mnemonic faculties are followed in maturity by the more complex intellectual activities of association, discrimination and judgment, while in the affective field there is moderation and equilibrium of the affective and passional manifestations, so as to permit the maximum psycho-physical output of the subject.

Alessandro Marolla