Tractus de Hermaphrodites; Or, A Treatise of Hermaphrodites

by Giles Jacob

Of unnatural Births; Monsters, and extraordinary Conceptions.

Hermaphrodites being Monsters in Nature, it is no more than what may be reasonably expected that my Account of their Generation, should be follow'd with some very extraordinary unnatural Births, monstrous Productions of another Kind, and wonderful Conceptions.

The Heathen Philosophers, were so prejudic'd to the Opinion of Woman's being an imperfect Animal, (alledging that Nature always propos'd to herself the Generation of Males as being the most accomplish'd piece of Workmanship;) that they look'd upon Woman as a Monster in Nature; but the Scriptures teach us, that Man and Woman are equally perfect in their Kind, and Nature cannot be suppos'd to produce more Monsters than perfect Beings, which must be the Case, if this Opinion were allow'd, Women being more numerous than the Men.

Monsters are deprav'd Conceptions, defin'd by the Ancients to be excursions of Nature, and are always Vicious, either in Figure, Situation, Magnitude, or Number. When they bear the resemblance of a Beast, they are said to be vicious in Figure; when the Parts are disproportion'd, as that one Part is too big for the other; (which is a thing very common by reason of some Excrescence) they are vicious in Magnitude; if the Ears were on the Face, or the Eyes on the Breast, &c. as was seen in a Monster born at Revanna in Italy, in the Year 1570, They are vicious in Situation, and when having two Heads or four Hands, and two Bodies join'd, as had a Monster born at Zarzara in the Year 1540, they are vicious in Number.

In the Reign of Henry the 3d, there was a Woman deliver'd of a Child, having two Heads, four Arms, and two Bodies which were join'd down to the Navel. The Heads were so plac'd that they look'd contrary ways. It was the Female Sex, and both Heads would speak, laugh and cry; and both Eat and be Hungry together, but there was but one Fundament to disburden Nature; sometimes one would Speak, and the other would keep silence, and sometimes both speak at the same time. It liv'd several Years, but one of them surviving the other, it carried the Dead one so long, that at last it fainted with the Burden. And at a Village call'd Ubaten in Flanders, a Child was Born which had two Heads and four Arms, appearing like two Maids joyn'd together, having two Arms lifted up between and above the Heads, the Thighs being plac'd as it were cross one another.

In the Year 1579, A Monster was Born in France, cover'd all over with Hair like a Beast, its Navel being in the place where his Nose should have been, his Eyes plac'd in the Situation of the Mouth; and its Mouth was in the Chin. It was of the Male-kind, and liv'd but a few Days, affrighting all that beheld it. And near Elselling in Germany, in the Year 1529, there was a Boy Born with one Head and one Body, having four Ears, four Arms, and four Feet, and but two Thighs, and two Legs: This Birth, in the Opinion of the Learned, proceeded from a Redundancy of Seed beyond what was sufficient for one Child, but not enough for Twins, wherefore Nature Form'd what she could. There might be many other particular Instances given of Monstrous Births, as some sticking together by the Bellies, others by the Breech; some Born without Arms or Legs others without Heads, yet have they liv'd for some time, till want of Sustenance made them pine away and Die, as having no place to receive it, and others with Heads like Dogs, Wolves, Bears, and other Beasts. But I shall proceed to the cause of their Generation.

The Natural Cause of Generation of Monsters, according to the Ancients, is either in the Matter, or in the Agent; in the Seed or in the Womb: The Matter may be unable to perform its Office two ways; by Defect, or by Excess: By Defect, when a Child hath but one Arm, or one Leg, &c. and by Excess, when it hath three Hands or two Heads. The Agent or Womb may be in Fault several ways, as in the forming Faculty, which may be too strong or too weak, by which a deprav'd Figure is oftentimes produc'd, the ill Conformation of the place of Conception will cause a Monstrous Birth; and the imaginative Power at the time of Conception, is so forcible, that it stamps a Character of the thing upon the Child; so that the Child of an Adulteress, by the strength of Imagination may have a nearer resemblance of her Husband, than of the Person who begat it. And some Histories mention, that through this Imaginative Faculty, a Woman at the time of Conception, beholding the Picture of a Blackamoor, produc'd a Child resembling an Æthiopian.

Monsters are sometimes Engender'd by unseasonable amorous Embraces, as when a Man enters on the Pleasures of Venus at a time as the monthly Flowings are upon his Wife; For this being against Nature, it is no wonder that it should produce an unnatural Offspring. If therefore a Man's desire be never so great for Copulation at such a time, yet the Woman ought not to admit of his Embraces; the issue of those unclean Embraces proving often Monstrous, or dull and heavy, and Defective in their Understandings.

Sometimes by a corruption of Seed, Monstrous Shapes are form'd, which by some is ascrib'd to the bad Influence of the Planets, that were predominant at the time of Conception; and sometimes the straightness of the Womb is attended with many Inconveniencies, for Nature not having sufficient room to frame her Work in, the Child is rumpled up, which occasions some to have hump'd Backs, crooked Arms, and Legs, round Shoulders, Wry Necks, and the like.