A dissertation on hermaphrodites: By George Arnaud, ...

A DISSERTATION ON HERMAPHRODITES.

* 1.1WHATEVER degree of accuracy and wisdom nature employs in the composition and frame of the human body, we have oftener than once seen her swerve from these, and, as it were, forget herself; oftener than once, instead of regarding that construction, that order, those proportions of the organs, whence results that perfect harmony, which forms the object of our admiration, she has exhibited irregular, vicious, and un∣seemly conformations of parts. It should seem, to speak the language of a certain author, that this common parent, tired out and spent with producing every day the same things, over and over, in the same order, did now and then quit that

uniformity, and throw into her producti∣ons a variety but little conformable to her laws. Sometimes she with-holds from a body the parts the most necessary; in ano∣ther subject, she is pleased to multiply them, often allots them situations, con∣nections, and dimensions, the most extra∣ordinary and fantastical; she separates what, according to her own laws, should be joined, and joins what ought to remain separate: hence arise those deformities in the strokes or features, those members ill-articulated, those disproportions, those im∣perfections of organical parts, and those combinations, so monstrous and out of the common road, that it is with difficulty we discover nature even in nature herself. Among the lusus naturae, which are exhi∣bited to us under different forms, some are of a peculiar species, which cannot fail of exciting our curiosity or compassion, and which art can never pretend to correct. There are others, on the contrary, which call for all the attention of the surgeon, and in which his understanding and dexterity be∣come of extraordinary use; who leaving to the bare speculative physician, the painful but honourable province of finding out the mysterious causes, his principal concern is to

lend a helping-hand to those who are thus disfigured by nature; he omits nothing in his power to redress and set her to-rights again, by prudent and skilful operations; and sometimes he is happy enough to suc∣ceed, either by retrenching useless and su∣perfluous parts, or by joining those which are separated, or separating those which are joined against the order of nature, or by laying those open and bare, which are concealed and covered. Daily practice furnishes examples enough, to prove that I advance nothing at random: but that I may confine myself within the li∣mits prescribed, I shall rest satisfied with giving proof thereof, by reciting an obser∣vation concerning an hermaphrodite, after having given a general idea of the different sorts of people of faulty structure of the parts of generation, who have been consi∣dered by certain authors as hermaphro∣dites, of which others formally deny the existence.

* 1.2By the term hermaphrodite, we under∣stand him or her, in whom the parts, which form the essential difference be∣tween the two sexes, are found together, either perfectly or imperfectly. It is de∣rived

rived from the greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, signi∣fying to be made up, or consist of Mer∣cury and Venus. In Ovid we find the fa∣bulous history which has given rise to that signification;* 1.3 he makes Hermaphroditus to be the son of Mercury and Venus; who, says he, was of so perfect a beauty, that the nymph Salmacis fell desperately in love with him one day, as he happened to be washing in a fountain where she presided; enraged for being unable to make him sen∣sible of her passion, she prayed the gods to join them together in such a manner, that their two bodies should make but one, in which, however, the two sexes should remain accurately distinguished; this fa∣vour was granted:

Nec duo junt, sed forma duplex, nec foe∣mina dici Nec puer ut possint: neutrumque & utrum∣que videntur.

"They are not two, yet the form is twofold; we cannot say, that it is the body of a boy or of a girl; they are nei∣ther, though they appear to be both."

The ancient poets, fruitful in fictions, underneath that veil concealed truths,

which happy geniuses have skilfully un∣veiled, by interpretations either moral or political. But the sequel of this dis∣course will possibly serve to justify those who imagine, that the veil which covers the truth in this fable, may be seen through. For may we not from this fiction infer (as M. Mertrua 1.4, who in this agrees with the Abbe de Bellegardeb 1.5, says) that

"the anci∣ents had a knowledge of the union of the two sexes in one and the same person; and that this fantasticalness of nature, is the origin of the fiction related by Ovid in his metamorphoses."

"Ovid has feigned," says the Abbe de Bellegarde, "that Hermaphroditus was the son of Mercury and Venus, upon the observations of some naturalists, who have remarked, that the children, who are born during the conjunction of these two planets, are sometimes hermaphro∣dites, and partake of both sexes."

The Greeks have, moreover, called these fort of creatures androgynes, a term which

seems to be more significant, in that it is derived from the two words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which denotes a man, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a woman. We however will use that of hermaphrodite, as being more common or popular.

* 1.6I will not engage in the disputes of some rabbins, who have given out that Adam was an hermaphrodite, prior to his fall, and that he was created with a view to continue in that state. On this head may be read Gaspar Bauhin.

* 1.7Hermaphrodites have been allowed of by so great a number of authors, that some people have no manner of doubt of their existence. Aristotle would seem to prove their evidence by the recital he makes of them: he relates such peculiarities of them, as are admired by some, and laughed at by others. I here pretend not to fix the judg∣ment of the reader, every one is at liberty to settle his ideas according to the extent of his understanding; my aim only is to relate the authorities of those who merit our attention: I shall neither contest nor prove that Aristotle has talked idly, or with reason affirmed, that some herma∣phrodites had the right breast like that of

a man, and the left like that of a woman, and that they changed nature alternately; that may or may not be, 'tis what I will not determine; nature shews every day singularities too surprising to attempt en∣gaging in that dispute with Aristotle.

* 1.8Ambrose Pareus, who had studied nature like a true surgeon, gives much more clear and precise ideas of them than Aristotle, by the division he has made, which at once gives us a true notion: he has given us several figures, among which is that of two hermaphrodites, twins, which came into the world joined by the back; fig. 1. plate II.

The best authors who have treated this matter since Pareus, have followed his di∣vision; as Gaspar Bauhin, who has writ a particular treatise, which is very ample, and so learned, that there are few works in any kind of natural history, so full of erudition. Duval, physician at Rouen, fol∣lows also Pareus's division. The author of the Tableau de l'amour consideré dans l'êtat du marriage, has also allotted for them a peculiar chapter, considerable and ample enough, following also Pareus's plan, ba∣ting

a few things: he however engages in explanations which are very abstracted and vague. Martinus Schurigius, in his Sper∣matologia historico-medica, gives very sin∣gular instances of them, and follows also the division of Pareus.

These authors, and others who have gone before them, as Hippocrates, Ga∣len, Realdus Columbus, Paulus AEgineta, Fortunius Licetus, and others, have un∣dertaken to explain what they imagined might have given occasion to the genera∣tion of hermaphrodites (those they took for such) but what they have left us on this head, contains nothing interesting enough to claim our attention: and as all I could myself advance, could not give half the satisfaction that the demonstration of facts affords, as nature lays them before our eyes, I pass on therefore to the divi∣sion of the different species of hermaphro∣dites.

* 1.9They are divided into four species, namely, the male hermaphrodite, plate I. fig. 2; the female hermaphrodite, plate I. fig. 1; the perfect hermaphrodite, plate II. fig. 1, 2, 3; the imperpect hermaphro∣dite, plate III.

Besides these four species of herma∣phrodites, there is a particular sort of per∣sons of bad formation of the parts of ge∣neration, to which we cannot ascribe any character of hermaphrodite; of which plate IV. may serve to give a general idea: I shall give instances thereof.

* 1.10The male hermaphrodite is he in whom the parts of generation of the man are perfect, both in dimensions, figure, and ac∣tions; and in whom the parts of the wo∣man err through some peculiarities, as when the vagina is not open enough to admit the penis; and that there is only an imperceptible outlet for the discharge of the menstrual blood.

* 1.11The female hermaphrodite is she who has all the parts of the woman fit for ge∣neration, and in whom the appearances of virility are imperfect. This species is characterised by those women in whom the clitoris is disengaged or free (for in the natural state, tho' it is, indeed, considerably swelled in the venereal act, yet it never quits its place to become erected; see plate IV. fig. 1.) and which having the same

figure with the penis of the man, yet with∣out being perforated like it, makes them almost resemble eunuchs, who can enjoy coition without the perfect consummation of the venereal act. The Greeks called these women 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, whence comes, I imagine,* 1.12 the old French word ribaude, which signifies a lewd woman; such was the famous Sappho. Martial writ the fol∣lowing epigram on occasion of a certain young woman of this species, who passed for virtuous for some time, because she had never ventured her chastity with the men:

Esse videbaris, fateor, Lucretia nobis, At tu, pro facinus! Bassa fututor eras. Inter se geminos audes committere cunnos, Mentitur{que} virum prodigiosa Venus. Commenia es dignum Thebano aenigmate monstrum, Hic, ubi vir non est, ut sit adulterium!

"I own, Bassa, I had all along taken you for a virtuous person; but, O infa∣mous! you played the whore-master, and had the impudence to act the part of a man with your own sex, and make yourself pass for one; a prodigy worthy the Theban riddle, that adultery may

be committed without the intervention of a man!"

Some years ago a girl of this sort was confined at Paris, because she went about in men's cloaths, and was discharged out of prison, on condition of going dressed like a woman, which she did with much re∣gret. These sort of women are pretty rare in Europe, but were formerly very com∣mon in Egypt; and when they were to be married, care was taken to cut the cli∣toris, to prevent its being troublesome to the husband. Aetius and Paulus AEgineta give the method of performing this ope∣ration.

* 1.13The perfect hermaphrodite, according to the relation of certain authors, is where we find the parts of generation of both sexes, with both the active and passive power. Albertus says that there are her∣maphrodites who are both incubi and suc∣cubi in coition, and yet incapable of gene∣rating or conceiving: wherefore nice and scrupulous authors consider these as im∣perfect hermaphrodites.

* 1.14They would have the parts of both sexes, each in particular, to have the ge∣nuine character which constitutes their es∣sence: for if there are some which are faulty, through a vice of action or propor∣tion, they accordingly class the subject with the male or female hermaphrodites.

The disposition of the exterior parts seems to be of no importance to their fa∣culties, and changes nothing in the species. It has been observed, that in some the parts are placed contiguous to each other; see plate II. fig. 1 and 3. Others there are, in which they are placed one above the other; sometimes those of the man have the first place; sometimes, those of the woman predominate; see plate II. fig. 2.* 1.15 But the most perfect disposition, in my opinion, is that which makes no al∣teration in the natural situation of the parts; as when the penis occupies the place of the clitoris, and the two testicles are inclosed in the lips of the vulva, as they would be in the scrotum, if divided into two equal parts, as may be remarked in plate I. fig. 2.

* 1.16The opinions have at all times been di∣vided in regard to the existence of this spe∣cies of hermaphrodites. Hippocrates, Ga∣len, Licubantius, Paulus Zacchias, Fabri∣cius ab Aquapendente, and some other au∣thors, knew of no such species; and from thence it is they disavowed them, in like manner as some philosophers did: yet Ari∣stotle, several historians, and some physical authors, relate instances of them, which seem guarded with all the characters of truth; and there is, even in the Talmud, a law for them, comprising several articles, and from which lawyers have taken their authorities to restrain these people. See Gaspar Bauhin.

* 1.17Every body knows the horror where∣with superstition had inspired the Romans against these sort of persons, who, by the laws of the Aruspices, were condemned to be drowned some years after their birth, because they were considered as monsters by the decree of Romulus; but in the time of Pliny they laid aside that unjust prejudice, as he proves by these words: Gignuntur utrius{que} sexus quos hermaphro∣ditas vocamus, olim androgynos vocatos, &

in prodigiis habitos, nunc vero in deliciis. "There are persons born with both sexes, "whom we call hermaphrodites, formerly "called androgyni, and deemed prodigies, "but now had in great favour.

These same Romans, convinced at length of their error, made a law, by which those who united in themselves both sexes, had the liberty of chusing their sex; but if af∣ter having made this choice, they came to be convicted of having made use of the other sex, they were punished with great rigour and severity.

* 1.18Another authority, which some people urge, to prove that the Romans allowed of true hermaphrodites is, that there was at Rome the famous hermaphrodite, which Polycles, a sculptor of great reputation, had made. There have been others found in marble, which are kept and considered as perfect master-pieces, and of inestimable value; whence they would infer, that these rare pieces were made after the life. But the figures of centaurs, satyrs, fauns, tri∣tons, syrens, &c. which antiquity supplies us with, greatly weaken that proof.

* 1.19We read in history of the cruelties which were formerly exercised in some parts of the India's upon hermaphrodites, who, from being very numerous, were employed in works, to which in Europe we put our horses.

* 1.20M. de Rennefort says, that at Surat there are still many people of that species, who with the dress of a woman are obliged to wear the turban, to publish to the world that they have the advantages of both sexes.

Pliny, after Calliphanes, affirms, that among the Nasamonians and Machlyans, people of Africa, there was a great num∣ber of hermaphrodites, who had mutually carnal knowledge of each other.

Gaspar Bauhin, Johannes Schenkius, Realdus Columbus, Martinus Schurigius, and some other physical authors, confirm their existence by the enumeration they make of them.

* 1.21In fine, Tertullian, St. Augustin, Kugler, and other divines of our day, have treated

these matters, so far as they have a relation to good order, and the regularity of man∣ners.

* 1.22But whatever be in this, as it is possibly on the relation of physicians and surgeons, that divines and lawyers determine on the species of the sex to which those should keep, to whom nature has given faculties so opposite, either for administering to them the sacraments, or doing them justice in civil and criminal affairs: 'tis in these cases that surgeons ought to be perfectly in∣formed in the structure and relation of these parts which constitute hermaphro∣dites; and that they ought to give a good deal of attention to the nature of the secre∣tions peculiar to these organs, without which they would be guilty of very great mistakes, by forbidding those parts, which possibly might be the fittest for generation, in order to allow the action or use of others, which might have the least degree of force, and the least faculty for that purpose.

* 1.23This examen, and the judgment we should pass upon it, are of so much the greater consequence, as the civil and canon laws are very strict against those who fail

in the oath they have been forced to take, of using only the sex they have reserved, and to which they have been forced to confine themselves; for by the violation thereof, they are condemned as guilty of the unnatural sin of the flesh: which is proved by an arret of the parliament of Paris of 1603, which condemned a young hermaphrodite to be burnt, for having made use of the sex he was expresly for∣bid.

* 1.24It was for not having observed with fi∣delity the law imposed on the people of that species, says Nicolas Venette, that the Scotish servant maid, who had chosen the quality of a woman, and who afterwards got a citizen's daughter with child, was buried alive by sentence of judge. Doctor Venette seems to contra∣dict himself in citing this example, as he pretends there are no genuine herma∣phrodites; for how could this creature have been punished like the hermaphro∣dites, who abuse both sexes, if she had not been perfectly provided with both? Or, dare we presume to say, that in a country, where the wisdom of the laws only govern, judges would have been wicked

enough to pass a decision without the au∣thority of proofs; a thing quite incredi∣ble.

But if divines are at a loss to decide un∣der what kind they should rank the capa∣city of a subject, in whom they find the two sexes, how much more must they be so, when chance joins together in mar∣riage two perfect hermaphrodites! This case is, indeed, rare, yet it happened to∣wards the middle of the last century in the kingdom of Valentia:* 1.25 two young persons were married, and very soon after they were both in the state of pregnant wo∣men; they were prosecuted as guilty of the most abominable crime; but Laurence Matthieu, a physician as prudent as know∣ing, who was consulted on their score, at the moment they were carrying to the place of execution, in order to be burnt alive, decided in their favour, the church having given them the Power to be joined together, and to make but one body and one flesh. Here follow his words:

Tenendum firmiter credo, delictum puni∣bile in iis hermaphroditis non reperiri; & quoad forum internum, opinor quod licité

utro{que} sexu uti poterant, virtute potestatis corporum acquisitae per matrimonium, cum facti fuissent duo in carne unâ ad finem na∣turalis prolis, vel ad finem remedii inconti∣nentiae.

"My opinion is, that there is no crime punishable by law in these hermaphro∣dites; and as to the court of conscience, I hold they may lawfully make use of either sex, in virtue of the power ac∣quired over each other's body by the rights of marriage, being become, but one flesh, for the purposes of genera∣tion, and for remedying the vice of in∣continence."

* 1.26A single instance of this sort would seem to border a little too much on the marvel∣lous, if nature, which can repeat at one time what she has produced at another did not multiply her proofs. We find in Ambrose Pareus the figure of two twins, see plate II. fig. 1. joined together by the back, and who both had the natural parts of both sexes exact and perfect in all their. shapes and dimensions.

Isidorus, on occasion of the perfect her∣maphrodites, says, Vicissim coeundo gignunt & pariunt.

"By mutual embraces they generate and bring forth."

But let us remove our thoughts from a commerce which appears so contrary to the purity of manners; let us allow that the rigour of the laws cannot too severely punish those who, after a solemn oath, should bring openly such a scandal to the view of the publick, which could not fail of being thereby justly irritated and in∣censed.

I wave a great many other instances to be met with in authors, by which they seem to prove the existence of perfect her∣maphrodites: my design, as I hinted, was not to make a compleat treatise on this sub∣ject, nor to fix or determine the judgment of the reader; I content myself only to re∣cite some authorities which seem to esta∣blish their possibility; a larger work would possibly not be in the taste of the publick; and the learned would not receive the

same degree of pleasure from it, as from reading the original authors themselves.

* 1.27The imperfect hermaphrodites are those in whom the natural parts of both sexes have defects, which either entirely suspend, or diminish their action. This last fort is the less rare, but also is that which varies the most. There have been of them, in whom there was not to be found even any the least appearance of a double sex, which however have passed for hermaphro∣dites; such was a sodomite, who,* 1.28 by the relation of Trallian, had conceived and brought forth. The same author says, that a soldier brought forth at the time that Conon commanded at Athens; be∣cause the fundament served as a conduit to the womb, just as the vagina does in a na∣tural state.

I will not insist on the number of in∣stances nearly of this kind, which are to be met with in authors, as the one or the o∣other are not sufficiently conclusive to esta∣blish the proposition. The following ob∣servation, cloathed with all the necessary characters, is a proof, if not sufficiently con∣vincing,

at least sufficiently probable, of the existence of imperfect hermaphrodites.

* 1.29In the year 1725, a species of herma∣phrodite, in woman's dress, applied to me on account of a hernia she said she had in the left groin. I found without the ring a small swelling, which appeared to me quite a different thing from the disease she complained of. She told me, she had always been sensible thereof, that some∣times it fell down lower; and that while it was reascending, which was the case from time to time, she underwent a great deal of pain. I caused the patient to be laid upon a bed, in order more particularly to examine her case. I at first sight per∣ceived a sort of penis, which made me suspect the swelling of the groin might prove a testicle. I compared the ailing side with the right, where I found a like swelling, but which fell down lower; I distinctly discovered, by the touch, that these two swellings were two testicles; I was not deceived as to the form of these organs, nor on that of the epididymis, and the spermatick vessels. I was obliged, in order accurately to examine the left testicle, to pull it a little downwards, be∣cause

cause it was, as it were, stuck on the ring, which never failed to happen, when nature was preparing for the expulsion of the men∣strual blood. This testicle was one half smaller than that of the right side.

* 1.30These two testicles were included each in a sort of purse or scrotum; these two purses represented well enough the two great lips of the natural parts of a woman: the inside of these lips was ruddy, strewed with sebaceous glands sufficiently distinct, and moistened with an humidity, like to that which generally drenches these parts. See plate III. letters E F. The penis is∣sued from the superior part of these two lips; upon removing which, the whole extent of that part was discovered: it was extremely well formed, was about three inches long, and four in circumference. I could not learn whether this penis was ca∣pable of any ordinary sensation, either be∣cause it was susceptible of no motion, or that modesty taught the patient too much discretion: she only told me, that at the time of the menses it became larger than at other times, but without erection; yet I understood, notwithstanding these rea∣sons, that it was very capable of erection,

because the patient would absolutely have me cut it away; by reason, said she, of the trouble it gave her: this trouble, in my opinion, could be no other than an involuntary, spontaneous erection, much more uneasy and embarrassing, than plea∣surable and satisfactory.* 1.31 This penis had the figure of that of a man, and appeared consisting of two cavernous bodies, an ure∣thra, and a glans; it was covered with a skin of the same colour with that which covered the other parts of the body; that skin was plaited on the corona of the glans, stretched and extended itself in order to re-cover it according to its disposition: the portion of the skin, which covered the under part of the penis, was ruddy, ex∣tremely smooth, and interspersed with se∣baceous glands, which made it moist.

* 1.32The glans was well formed and pro∣portioned to the rest of the penis; it was not perforated at its extremity, but there we observed a small depression, which ex∣tended along the length of the under part of the penis to its root, and terminated at the superior edge of the canal of the urine: this depression, which had the figure of the indenture of a probe, appeared incon∣testably

to be the urethra of the penis sunk or depressed; for, when the patient made water, the depression became filled up and swelled; which gave reason to believe, that the urine had free access into this canal, which, being unperforated, obliged the fluid to return by the canal which na∣ture had formed for it.

This canal was terminated by a hole en∣tirely like to the urinary meatus in women;* 1.33 it was situated in the same part it is in the sex, and had the figure thereof; see letter C of plate III. There was no appearance of nymphae.

On both sides of this depression, of which I have spoken, were very distinctly felt the cavernous bodies;* 1.34 they seemed to termi∣nate at the superior middle part of the ossa pubis.

* 1.35Immediately under the inferior border of the canal of the urine, was formed re-union of the two separated portions of the purses or scrota, which formed the lips: this re-union, or commissure, re∣sembled, imperfectly enough, what French

authors call the fourchettea 1.36. From this commissure to the anus, there were about three inches distance, which distance was occupied by a portion of lax and softish skin, which sunk under the finger, and seemed to enter into a kind of cavity; none of that seam, which is called the raphé, was remarked therein, but on it was observed much hair, as indeed on all the rest of the part, and none about the anus.

The cavity, into which the skin sunk,* 1.37 when pressed with the finger, seemed to indicate that of the vagina; which having no orifice, suffered not the menstrual blood to run off freely: it was obliged to pass every month through the anus, by taking the rout of an aperture or canal of com∣munication, which probably reached from the vagina to the rectum.

* 1.38Some days before the issuing of the men∣strual blood, by the way nature had paved for it, there was a tumour formed in the perineum, which encreased gradually, and in three or four days became of the bigness

of a hen's egg: at the end of that time, the blood began to flow by the anus,* 1.39 with∣out observing there any swelling either in∣ternally or externally; which gave room to think that this blood was amassed by overflowing into the cavity where it was retained, till there had been a large enough quantity thereof, to be able to gain the height of the orifice of communication, which from that receptacle went into the rectum; when once it had begun to flow, it continued discharging for three or four days. It was further observed, that the skin which closed up the vagina, and which formed a bunch or swelling, when the blood was there amassed, changed not colour.

Such was the state of the parts, when I saw the patient for the first time; Mess. Malaval and Puzos examined her at the same time with me. These gentlemen suspended their judgment, and would not determine under what species to rank her, without having previously made a parti∣cular examen of the kind of periodical flux, which she called her courses. I know not whether, these gentlemen have

since been able to inform themselves more exactly.

* 1.40This creature was then thirty-five years old, was five foot five inches high, had the corpulence of a thin effeminate man, had little beard; her complexion was tan∣ned or swarthy, the skin of her body dingy or brown, her voice hoarse and mannish, her breast flat, her arms dry and muscu∣lous, the hands large, the fingers long and strong, the belly flat, the haunches large, the pubis raised much, the buttocks, the thighs and legs round, the feet small; so that she might be taken for a man from the head to the waist downwards; but for a woman too, from the waist down to the feet, bating the parts of generation. She employed herself in women's work.

* 1.41As this hermaphrodite was extremely valetudinary, and complained much more of her bad state of health during the time that the menstrual flux was in a disposition to appear, and then was subject to consi∣derable tensions of the belly, to violent cholicks in the lumbary regions, to yawn∣ings, to continual vertigo's, and frequent

syncope's; I imagined that all these symp∣toms, to which she was subject from the age of puberty, and which had brought her in danger of sinking under them, proceeded from the menstrual blood not having liberty enough to evacuate; and that necessarily a more easy way must be paved for it, by opening the skin which closed up the vagina, and by maintaining in that part a suitable aperture. Many of the most celebrated surgeons were of my opinion; but as we agreed to perform that operation at a time the tumour of the pe∣rineum should appear, the patient went away home some miles from Paris, and was five or six months gone. She told me, on her return, that being almost brought to the point of death at the times she had had her courses upon her; and as the time of having them drew near, she thought herself obliged to come, previous to her suffering what she then apprehend∣ed; yet I thought it proper to make my remarks before undertaking the operation. On the morrow after her arrival, she com∣plained of colick pains, fell into swooning fits and faintings, could not eat for all that day; her pulse was raised, frequent, and

unequal. I several times touched the pe∣rineum the first day, without observing therein any thing more than ordinary; the second day I began to perceive a small swelling, but the third it became of the bigness of a hen's egg, without changing the colour of the skin; the tumour dimi∣nished considerably when the patient was a-bed. M. de la Brunnerie, and my fa∣ther, made the very same observations. At length, on the close of the fourth day, we saw the blood issuing out at the funda∣ment in a very small quantity,* 1.42 of a colour rather serous than sanguine; it continued flowing, but in a larger quantity for five days, of the ordinary colour. On the sixth day the evacuation diminished, and was quite dried up on the seventh. During all the time of the courses, we informed ourselves of the state of the fundament, where we found not the least appearance of haemorrhoids. The most favourable time for performing the operation, had been a month after, when the tumour was to re-appear; but the patient could only stay fifteen or twenty days at Paris: I was then obliged to avail myself of that time of necessity. I called together Messs. de la

Brunnerie, Carére, Guerin the elder, Mo∣rand, de Garengeot, Foubert, Grammont, Galin, and my father; all were of opinion (after having heard my exposal, and exa∣mined the parts) that I should proceed to the operation.

* 1.43I caused the patient to lie on the side of a bed, her legs being supported on the knees of two of the consultants, who held her thighs asunder. I pinched the skin, which covered the vagina, transversely, with the thumb and forefinger of my left-hand; Mr. Guerin laid hold also with his fingers on the same fold, on the side oppo∣site to that which I held; I afterwards cut that skin with a strait bistory, by de∣scribing a line perpendicular to the anus; at one stroke I came to a sort of cellular texture, which I took hold on with a hook, and which I afterwards cut with a pair of scissars. I conveyed my finger into the aperture, which procured me the division of the cellular texture; it entered without any resistance into a void or empty space, which was considered by those of the con∣sultants, who put their finger into it, as the cavity of the vagina. This cavity seemed to us to have two or three inches

in depth, and about two in circumference. I filled it with several t••ps of lint, tied with thread. On the following day I sub∣stituted, for the taps of lint, a tent of 3 ½ inches long, and one in diameter. On the sixth day of the operation, Mr. Verdier and I felt, at the end of the finger, an eminence at the bottom of the vagina,* 1.44 which appeared to us to be the orifice of the part of the matrix which enters into the vagina. From the sixth day after the operation, the patient was not dressed for twenty-five days that she stayed at Paris, but with a very large tent made of prepa∣red spunge, which was never charged with purulent matter but at the parts, which answered to the aperture of the skin, whose edges suppurated a very long time. I gave pieces of prepared spunge to the patient to use herself. Some days after getting home, the blood of the courses came out at the aperture which I had made for it, without a single drop passing by the fundament; she had also none of the symptoms, to which she had been formerly subject, only for five or six hours before the flux, she had colick pains like those she had always had upon her. The evacuation lasted only three days; during which time the patient

discontinued the use of the spunge, as I had directed her, and continued it after∣wards. Five weeks after, the blood re-appeared still by the same part, and flowed for three or four days. The patient imagi∣ned then she might be without the spunge. The fistulous orifice, that is to say, the aperture which I had made, appeared to be closed up; yet it opened on the third month to give passage to the blood, when it was about to re-appear. This happened still for two months longer; but on the sixth month the blood resumed its course by the fundament, and all the symptoms, to which the patient had been subject before the operation, recurred upon her afresh. She thus suffered silently, without acquainting me for eight or ten months; at the end of which time she consulted me: I had no other means to propose to her than the same operation; but particular reasons hin∣dered the submitting to it.

We see by this observation, of what consequence the resources of surgery are, and that if nature departs from her usual course, and forgets herself, she may, by the aids of this art, be redressed, and new ways, capable of putting her in the state

of perfection she ought to have, be paved out for her, provided the patients have discretion enough to assist themselves, and second the surgeon's care.

* 1.45The patient died in 1740; I was ap∣prized of the day of her death; I commu∣nicated it to the academy of surgery. The academy named M. Verdier and Foubert to make their report. M. Verdier, on whom I deferred the honour of opening the body, carried home with him all the parts, in order to make a particular dissec∣tion of them in presence of M. Foubert, myself, and some other curious persons, who went along with us to the defunct's. M. Verdier made several appointments, but kept none of them, through an affec∣tation but little decent. What were his reasons to behave in this manner, and to have made no report to the academy, are things quite unknown to me.

* 1.46It now remains to make a general exa∣men of a species of subjects, to which it is not possible to give any character of her∣maphrodite, and even sometimes pretty difficult to determine their sex.

There are some, in whom we cannot easily distinguish whether what appears prominent or sticking out, be the penis or the clitoris, the part which appears to repre∣sent either, being the most fantastical and various that can be, more or less long or large, of an irregular, round, square, flat, spiral, unequal, or uneven figure, susceptible of any voluptuous or pleasurable sensation, of inflation, erection, or quite insensible of all. There are of them who have a sort of glands, which we would be apt to take for testicles, did we not more narrowly attend to them: others have genuine testi∣cles, but placed differently than in the na∣tural state; as the subject of which Reald. Columbus speaks, who had them in the perineum: and there has been seen in London, not long ago, a man who had them in the same place.

* 1.47In some subjects we distinguish not whe∣ther there be any vagina or no, unless chance make the discovery for us. Marti∣nus Schurigius relates the history of a young woman, who arrived to a very advanced age, without every knowing whether she had any vagina or no. She had occasion

to take a glyster, but as no one could ad∣minister it, her surgeon undertook the task: he was surprized to find the decoc∣tion come out in proportion as the syringe voided it; he drew back the pipe, and in∣troduced his finger into the fundament; and then he perceived that the canal, by which the excrements were discharged, was larger than commonly the fundament is, went also to the matrix, whose orifice he touched with his finger.

* 1.48This observation seems to confirm what Palfyn relates after Zaborella, professor of phyfick, who had a servant-maid, whose urine and excrements came out by the va∣gina. This fact is related as a natural ac∣cident, having nothing in common with the same accidents which happen to cer∣tain women, the neck of whose bladder, and the rectum, are tore in hard labour.

* 1.49There are also people ill-conformed, who though they have canals which seem proper for conveying the urine out of the bladder, yet they discharge it by other peculiar passages; such was that herma∣phrodite of Columbus, who discharged the urine above the os pubis.

* 1.50Nature, in some subjects, forms to her∣self peculiar routs for the evacuation of the courses, as was remarked in the per∣son of a monk, who died at the Hotel-Dieu of Paris in 1726. M. Boudou, head-surgeon of that hospital, opened the body of this religious. The exterior parts con∣sisted in a chink of no great depth, ruddy within, like the part of a woman; the two edges of that chink represented, im∣perfectly enough, the two lips of the vulva. In one of these two lips there was a testi∣cle, in the other none: from the space be∣tween these two lips issued forth, towards the superior part, a sort of penis ill-formed, unperforated. The urine had been al∣ways determined through an orifice situa∣ted under the penis, at its root, in the part where is the meatus urinarius of wo∣men. These was no appearance of a va∣gina externally. After this examen, he opened the belly; he found that the sper∣matick vessels observed nearly the same direction as in the natural state; such of these vessels, as were of the side of the testicle, went to empty themselves into that organ; instead of the bladder of that side, in the ordinary situation, there was a se∣minal

vesicle; the spermatick vessels of the opposite side proceeded to lose them∣selves between the bladder and rectum in a small body, which, as far as Mr. Bou∣dou imagined, was a matrix, which, for want of use, was become collapsed.

This religious had an ulcer in one of his legs, from whence periodically flowed, every month, a sanious serosity, which made Mr. Boudou conjecture, that the discharge, which was made by that ulcer, supplied the place of the menses.

There are in this observation some other peculiarities, in which I am not enough instructed; they would come much better from the hands of Mr. Boudou himself.

* 1.51It is not only in our days, that such sort of people are to be met with in cloi∣sters: Gaspar Bauhin relates, that in the year 1478, in the reign of Louis XI. there was a monk hermaphrodite at Issoire in Auvergne, who had the advantage of both sexes; he came to be in the condition of a pregnant woman, and was delivered of a child at the usual term.

Mas, mulier, monachus, mundi mirabile monstrum.

An accurate description of the parts would have given us more satisfaction than all the fine gingle of words in this verse. The place also we assign to this history, screens us from the reproach that might be thrown out upon us, did we put it to the rank of perfect hermaphrodites.

These sorts of subjects, ill-constructed, do often impose on the people of the art, the most skilled in the structure of the parts; and thus it is nowise surprizing, to find midwives embarrassed, who have of∣ten taken males for females, and females for males; because that in these the cli∣toris is sometimes longer than in the na∣tural state; and in those, the penis is ex∣tremely short, and the scrotum, folded up in two, appears as if divided by a slit: of this we find instances in Riolanus, and De Graaf; my practice has furnished me with one, as follows.

* 1.52M. Perrat, man-midwife to the queen, was consulted for a child of six years old,

who passed for a girl, on a hernia he was supposed to have; he devolved on me the decision and the care: I found that the pretended hernia was a testicle, which gave me the curiosity particularly to exa∣mine the scrotum and penis: the scrotum was exactly divided by a slit, like to that of the vulva; this slit was ruddy within, and very moist; the penis was extremely short, and scarce came out of the slit; the testicle, which was taken for a hernia, had begun to come out of the belly but lately, and that of the other side had not yet appeared. I acquainted the parents with their mistake of the sex, which gave them a double satisfaction.

* 1.53We sometimes meet with conforma∣tions still more vitiated, which are made to pass current with persons prepared by prejudices. Dr. Douglass disabused the publick, by the description he gave of the natural parts of a female African, who ten years ago passed in Londom for an her∣maphrodite: he caused to engrave the plate, which Mr. Cheselden has published in his anatomy, and Dr. Parsons in his cri∣tical inquiry into hermaphrodites. This

African had all the proportions of body, the tone of voice, and the ways of a woman. Two peculiarities only in her parts of gene∣ration, were sufficient to impose on the sim∣ple, namely, the clitoris and the lips of the vulva. The clitoris, as may be seen plate IV. which I caused to engrave after the original, is indeed larger and longer than in the natural state, but has nothing to characterise the penis; the right lip, excessively large, compared with the other, is, with probability, supposed by Dr. Dou∣glass to include a hernia of the ovaries (it might also be an epiplocele) which impo∣sed on those who considered it as a testicle. The marking down the urethra, which I suppose to be between the nymphae, has escaped the accuracy of Dr. Douglass. Dr. Parsons's work contains several instances of this sort, which he has drawn from authors; they all tend to his design, name∣ly, the proving the opinion he is in, that there is no hermaphrodite among men; that no hermaphrodital nature can exist in human bodies.

Nothing is more common, than to hear mention made of these sorts of persons as

hermaphrodites; and the publick would for ever be under the illusion, if persons of wisdom did not endeavour to disabuse it.

* 1.54M. Faudacque, surgeon at Namur, says, in an observation which he has communi∣cated to the academy of surgery at Paris, that he has seen, at three leagues distance from Givet, a child of eight months old, who passed for an hermaphrodite. The Penis was unperforated both at the glans and preputium; he made water by an orifice greatly dilated, like a sort of vulva, situated immediately under the scrotum. As to the rest, the penis was, says M. Faudacque, disfigured and monstrous, re∣sembled a small snail, was so curled and bent, that the extremity of the glans, co∣vered with the preputium, touched the posterior part of the root of the penis. All the part, which answered to the place where naturally is the canal of the ure∣thra, appeared to be ligamentous, and so short, as to bridle in and bend the penis in the manner I have described. When Mr. Faudacque saw the child for the first time, the testicles were not yet come

down into the scrotum, but since he has observed them there.

Mr. Mertru, surgeon at Paris,* 1.55 has pub∣lished in the Mercure de France for the month of February of this year 1750, the description of the parts of the body of one named Michel-Anne Drouart, aged about sixteen, born at Paris, in the Fauxbourg St. Marceau. The state of this young man, to whom M. Mertru ascribes the character of hermaphrodite, leaves no doubt of the species of his sex, since he is in London, where he arrived four or five months ago. The difficulty of finding the cause of the sudden change of his state, will justify my silence. His coun∣tenance, his voice, his corpulence, the pro∣portion of his limbs, denote very distinctly the male kind. He is a lad, who, for his age, is well built, but ill-formed in the parts of generation of a man, which are the only ones he has. Nature, indeed, seems to have forgot herself in the con∣formation of the penis; for tho' of the natural bulk, size, and figure, yet it is unperforated and bent downwards, being

forced to take that turn by a fold of the skin, which extends from its root to the frenum: but as nature rarely loses on one hand, but she gains on the other, she has formed for herself a way at the root of the penis for the discharge of the urine and other excretions. We may compare this aperture to the meatus urinarius in women: if there is any difference, it is only in the exterior figure of this orifice, in that it forms a sort of excrescence, composed of a simple fold of the skin, which is of a se∣milunar figure; this fold forms a cavity about three lines in depth, and admits the extremity of the little finger to lodge in it; it terminates almost at all the circumfer∣ence of the meatus urinarius, and has the figure of a funnel. On removing the two sides of this excrescence, we observe in the inferior part a very delicate folding, but in which we found nothing to characterize the fourchette; this part forms, in young women especially, who have had no chil∣dren, a perfect crescent, and raised much, which does not appear in this subject. At the bottom of the sort of funnel I menti∣oned, I find a small nipple (as Mr. Mertru

remarks) but to us it appeared to be ano∣ther vice of conformation: it is placed over-against the urethra, and makes the jet of urine forked. The absence of the testi∣cles, in the two divided portions of the scrotum, holds still to this day; but their existence is for that not the less certain, since the subject has evacuations of semi∣nal matter, of the same consistence and colour with that of a man of his age, in consequence of the erections, which, by his own confession, procure him the enjoy∣ment of the sex. The want of testicles in the scrotum, is a defect common to a good many men, which hinders not their hav∣ing a great deal of vigour; on the con∣trary, they are much more able for gene∣ration, on account of the heat in which these organs are kepta 1.56. I have on this subject a memoir both useful and interesting, which I purpose to publish soon. As to the menses, they have not hitherto appeared, and no∣thing can make me believe they ever can.

We reckon then by this report, that the subject in question, is a lad ill-formed

in his genital parts, and incapable of ge∣neration.* 1.57 The memoirs of the academy of sciences of Paris, make mention of a sort of creature much more singular, and whose sex appears to me difficult to deter∣mine.

In figure and body, in gross, it resemb∣led a girl: it was baptized by the name Margaret. The construction of the natu∣ral parts was such, that no vagina appear∣ed; there were, however, two lips, which characterised only the part of the woman. From between these lips there issued forth a pretty long penis, about eight inches in length, when in a state of erection; it was well formed, but without any preputium. There was, besides, no appearance of testi∣cles; the urine and semen issued out as in a man, through the canal of the urethra but what was more extraordinary, the menses passed regularly every month thro' the same canal.

* 1.58I conclude with the following observa∣tion; it must be considered here as out of its place: its singularity might entitle it to

be ranked under the species of perfect her∣maphrodites: but as the person, who is the subject thereof, never had any chil∣dren, and as there is no proof it ever begot any, this might be made a handle of to charge us with being inclined to decide too lightly. The readers therefore will be left at liberty to give to this subject what character they shall judge to suit best to it.

The observation is owing to M. Gallay, surgeon of Gargenville near Mantes in Nor∣mandy, who has submitted it to the judg∣ment of the academy of surgery of Paris.

On the 27th of March 1740, being, says he, at the village of Issou near Mantes, I learned they were to bury, that very day, a woman who had passed for an herma∣phrodite; I arrived at the moment they were about to convey the body into the earth. I begged of the husband to allow me to examine her, which he granted, on condition I should not open her. The na∣tural parts appeared to me to consist of the lips, the nymphae, &c. At the superior angle of the great chink, where the clitoris

should be, there was a well-conditioned penis, the glans was proportional, and co∣vered in part with its preputium, was as perfectly crowned as that of a man; at the extremity of this glans, there was an ori∣fice, into which I introduced a probe, which entered quite into the bladder, from which issued out the little urine it con∣tained. This penis was three inches six lines in length, and three inches four lines in circumference. The urine had no other outlet than by this canal. I discovered no testicles, the great lips were the parts which should naturally contain them; the vagina was placed, as usual, at the infe∣rior part of the vulva; thither I introduced my fingers; with their extremities I felt the orifice of the matrix, whose edges were hard, and, as it were, cartilaginous. The husband withdrew for a moment; I im∣proved this time of absence in opening the belly, in hopes of finding there the testi∣cles; my expectation proved vain, I found nothing that had any relation to these parts; the ovaries, the tubae fallopianae, the womb, were scirrhous. The return of the husband prevented the carrying any farther my curiosity. There is room to

believe, that the penis consisted of all the parts necessary to its actions, since the husband assured me, that it was of∣ten in a state of erection. I could not learn, whether in that state it had ever discharged any sort of seminal matter. As to the rest, this woman had had her courses in her youth, never had had any children; her face was thick set with a beard, the tone of her voice was mannish.

I here give,* 1.59 by way of supplement to these observations, the history of two her∣maphrodites, which are said to be of the perfect kind. The one was a young lady of condition, the other a Religious of the order of St. Francis, who had the direc∣tion of the young lady's conscience. Lust and the devil put it into the heart of the monk, to join with his penance a com∣merce very different from that which his profession allowed of; but he paid dearly for his incontinence, for after a proper pe∣riod he brought forth a girl, which cost him his life, through the hard labour he underwent.

The girl, who was born of this copu∣lation in a town of Italy, where the scene of the action lay, is now actually living at Paris. She has given the history of her father and mother; and the manuscript, which she purposes to publish forthwith, is in the hands of a person of my ac∣quaintance. The publick will then judge what place in our differtation this history should occupy.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Introduction.
• * 1.2

  Etymo∣logy of the term herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.3

  Herma∣phrodite; its origin.
• a 1.4

  Mercure de Franc. du Mois de Fevr. 1750. Edit. Lond.
• b 1.5

  Auteur des Explic. sur les Metamorph d'Ovide. Edit. de la Haye. 1735.
• * 1.6

  S••••e aff••••m that A••am was an herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.7

  Aristotle's opinion on herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.8

  Ambrose Pareus's opinion on herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.9

  Division of herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.10

  Male herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.11

  Female herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.12

  Ribaude, what.
• * 1.13

  The per∣fect her∣maphro∣dite.
• * 1.14

  The true character of the per∣fect her∣maphro∣dite.
• * 1.15

  The most natural order.
• * 1.16

  The opi∣nions di∣vided as to the exist∣ence of genuine herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.17

  Ist autho∣rity, tend∣ing to prove the existence of perfect herma∣phodires.
• * 1.18

  IId autho∣rity which seems to prove the existence of perfect herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.19

  IIId au∣thority, tending to prove the existence of perfect herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.20

  IVth au∣thority, tending to prove the existence of perfect herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.21

  Divines admit the existence of herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.22

  It is of impor∣tance to physicians and sur∣geons to be in∣structed in what con∣stitutes the character of herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.23

  VIth au∣thority, tending to confirm the pre∣ceding ones, in regard to perfect herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.24

  VIIth au∣thority, which supports the pre∣ceding ones on the sub∣ject of perfect herma∣Phrodites.
• * 1.25

  VIIIth authority, which seems to confirm in a manner more con∣vincing than any other, the existence of perfect herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.26

  Ixth au∣thority, which confirms the pre∣ceding.
• * 1.27

  Imperfect herma∣phrodites; what con∣stitutes their true character.
• * 1.28

  A sodo∣mite con∣ceives and brings forth.
• * 1.29

  Ist obser∣vation made by the author of the dis∣sertation.
• * 1.30

  The co∣vering of the testicles.
• * 1.31

  The figure of the penis; its structure.
• * 1.32

  The glans and its prepu∣tium.
• * 1.33

  Urinary meatus.
• * 1.34

  Caver∣nous bodies.
• * 1.35

  The infe∣rior re∣union of the two lips.
• a 1.36

  Fourchette is the inferior commissure of the lips of the vulva; it seems we have no term in English for it.
• * 1.37

  Appear∣ance of the vagina
• * 1.38

  A tumour in the perinaeum at the time of the menses.
• * 1.39

  Evacua∣tion of the menses by the funda∣ment.
• * 1.40

  Age, cor∣pulence, and cha∣racter of the pati∣ent, and the pro∣portion of the parts.
• * 1.41

  The symptoms caused to this her∣maphro∣dite by her bad con∣forma∣tion.
• * 1.42

  Discharge of the menses.
• * 1.43

  Opera∣tion; in what manner perform∣ed.
• * 1.44

  The ma∣trix dis∣tinguished by the touch.
• * 1.45

  The death of the patient: the open∣ing of the body.
• * 1.46

  Subjects ill con∣formed, to which we cannot give the quality of herma∣phrodites.
• * 1.47

  IId obser∣vation. The va∣gina un∣apparent, is only discovered by chance.
• * 1.48

  IIId ob∣servation. The ex∣crements and urine sometimes come out at the vagina.
• * 1.49

  The urine sometimes discharg∣ed byways quite ex∣traordi∣nary.
• * 1.50

  IVth ob∣servation. The menses are some∣times dis∣charged by pecu∣liar out∣lets.
• * 1.51

  Vth ob∣servation. A monk herma∣phrodite delivered of a child.
• * 1.52

  VIth ob∣servation. A girl taken for a boy till the age of six years.
• * 1.53

  VIIth ob∣servation. A female African, who pas∣sed for an herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.54

  VIIIth observa∣tion A child ill-con∣formed, who pas∣sed for an herma∣phrodite.
• * 1.55

  IXth ob∣servation ano∣ther boy, taken for an her∣maphrodite.
• a 1.56

  This manner of speaking, though improper, ceases not to be understood.
• * 1.57

  Xth ob∣servation. A subject in which the menses come out by the penis.
• * 1.58

  XIth ob∣servation. An her∣maphro∣dite of a very pe∣culiar sort.
• * 1.59

  XIIth ob∣servation. Two her∣maphro∣dites in carnal commerce together.