SECT. LXIX.—ON HERMAPHRODITES.
This affection derives its name from a combination of the names Hermes and Aphrodite (Mercury and Venus,) and occasions great deformity to both sexes. There being four varieties of it, according to Leonides; three of them occur in men and one in women. In men, sometimes about the perineum and sometimes about the middle of the scrotum, there is the appearance of a female pudendum with hair; and in addition to these there is a third variety, in which the discharge of urine takes place at the scrotum as from a female pudendum. In women there is often found above the pudendum and in the situation of the pubes the appearance of a man’s privy parts, there being three bodies projecting there, one like a penis, and two like testicles. The third of the male varieties in which the urine is voided through the scrotum is incurable; but the other three may be cured by removing the supernumerary bodies and treating the part like sores.
Commentary. This section of our author is copied by Albucasis (Chirurg. ii, 70); and by Haly Abbas (Pract. ix, 55.) Avicenna briefly mentions this monstrosity. (iii, 20, 2, 43.)
Guy of Cauliac and Brunus describe it in the same terms as the Arabians.