Whatever the Necessity might be for the Creation of certain of the Reptiles of this Nature, such as the Garden shell’d Snail, and the large Earth-worm, both of which are certainly so, which I can affirm from my own Knowledge, having often drawn both these asunder when in Coition, and observ’d them; as well as from so good Testimony, as Mr Bradley in his Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature[26], where he has several curious Observations on these Animals, and a Figure of the Parts of Generation of a Snail, done as they appeared in a Microscope. As also from a Book intitled, Spectacle de la Nature, which is no less to be regarded than the former, both for Truth and Accuracy. I say, whatever may be the Cause of this, there does not appear in Reason the least occasion for it in larger Animals. As to the former, if we may attempt to guess at a Reason for their being thus created, it may perhaps not be amiss to surmise as follows, viz. We know these are very slow Creatures in their Motions, and consequently their Congress is the more seldom; and besides they are subject to so many destroying Accidents, that if the female Properties were but in one, it would hardly be sufficient to preserve their Species; hence it is that at the same Access they both beget, and bear in a reciprocal Manner. However, one Observation worthy of note is, that though they have a Capacity of both ways of engendering, it must be remark’d, that it is at the same Instant both are executed, and not successively or by Choice, being incapable of neglecting either to chuse the other. Besides, we find they are all so, through their whole Class; which to them is the same strict Law of Nature, that it is to other Animals to possess but a single Sex. Nor can this Law be ever violated in them, by any Means whatsoever, any more than that Law of Nature predominant in us should digress from what it always was, or be alter’d by any new Decree of the Divine Will, whose Decrees are already fix’d and unchangeable; our single Natures being sufficient to preserve the human Race, in a successive Series, and their double one being no more; which alone was the Purpose of such Formations in all animal Beings, and no other. But no such Restraints attend larger Animals, and therefore no such Nature is at all necessary in them; however, tho’ all others are limited to certain Seasons, as to their generative Capacities, it is very strange that no Appearance has ever been had of two Sexes in any one upon Dissection, (though many have been supposed of a double Nature) but the human; who have no limits set to their Powers of procreating, and who on all accounts seem to have the least need of any thing of the Kind.
If it be objected that it happens not to human Nature through any Necessity, but only from a Lusus of Nature; I answer, that no such Lusus can happen, and it will be very evident, if we only reflect a little upon the Nature of Generation, which will be more amply treated of in another Place; however, one Principle will be sufficient to our Purpose here, which is, that the Rudiments or Parts of all Animals whatsoever are already form’d in the Ovum[27], and that nothing can be produced by the Males, but a Juice capable of giving Motion, Explication, and Extension to those Parts, and that since we know the common Standard of Nature in human Bodies is, that there should be but one Sex in one Body, it is impossible that there should be the least Imperfection in the Rudiments of any one of the Ova, since they were implanted in Females from the Beginning of Time, by the Almighty Fiat, and were under the Restriction of that Law, that every Day’s Experience confirms to us is certain; for if there was not so absolute a Law, with respect to the being of only one Sex in one Body, we might then, indeed, expect to find every Day many preposterous Digressions from our present Standard. That there are certain Limits set to the Things of Generation appears no where better than when Animals of different Species meet and copulate; the Animal that is the Product of such a Congress is in no wise capable of producing an Off-spring like itself, to this there is an absolute ne plus ultra, and why? Because, indeed, if such were capable of Generation, we should, by degrees, have a new set of Heterogenous Animals upon Earth. But it is plain, it never was the Design of the Almighty, since every Species of Animals are the same now that they ever were, and we must, from this Argument, expect no other while time subsists. And indeed, were we to have regard to the Notions of some of the Ancients concerning Generation, as, that the Male and Female Semina meeting form’d a Child of either Sex, according to the Predominance of the Strength or Quantity of either Semen, and if both were equal in Quantity and Quality, a Child of both Sexes was begotten, I say, were we to have regard to this, we might still be liable to be borne away by this Hypothesis, as Authors have been hitherto, which would inevitably seduce us to believe, that there are Hermaphrodites in human Nature. And therefore, whensoever the Parts of both Sexes are seen distinct in any Subject, they are not in the same, but in different Bodies preternaturally join’d, and coalesced together in the Uterus, by Compression, Heat, Inflammation, or some other such Accident; of this there lately was an Example in Town at Charing-Cross, which had the Heads separate, and the Sexes appearing considerable Distance from each other. But who, with the least Propriety, can call these an Hermaphrodite, each Body having it’s peculiar Sex, and being morbid in their Conjunction.
The Notions that sprung up in the World concerning this Matter were (no doubt) first taken from Appearances that sometimes have happen’d of an extraordinary Elongation in the Clitorides of Females; the first Idea conceiv’d from thence must have been that of a Penis, and the Appearance of a Vulva join’d to it raised an Opinion of both Sexes in the same Body; hence proceeded the Invention of a proper Name for the surprising Unity of both Sexes; and hence, the Fictions of Poets, which the Learned are well acquainted with. It will not be very difficult to account in some Measure, for the rise of such erroneous Imaginations, if we only consider how ignorant the World was in former Ages of the animal Structure, and even of those that understood ought of it, how few there were, who (from the Obscurity of the Clitoris in Females in a natural State) knew that any such Part existed: It is therefore not much to be wonder’d at, that at the first Sight of a large Clitoris, divers odd Conjectures should arise, and supply the Fancy of those unskill’d in a due Knowledge of the Part, with Matter sufficient for the Erection of new Doctrine.
An Opinion of any kind, when once on foot, is a Law to Posterity, till repealed by the Doubts and Scrutinies of the Learned and Curious. Doubt is the only Path to Truth; for by this we examine, search, and discern Truth from Error; natural History affords Examples enough of Falshoods copy’d and handed down from Age to Age, through the whole Class of Writers, who never doubted each other, and consequently were never able to know the Truth of Things, upon which many Volumes have been wrote; and it is matter of no small surprise, that Authors never were able to take the least hint from the Practice of the People of some of the Asiatick, as well as the African Nations, concerning these large Clitorides; for as in both these Parts of the World, the Women have them most commonly very long, and the People knowing that the Length of them produces two Evils, viz. the hindering the Coitus, and Womens abuse of them with each other, wisely cut or burn them off while Girls are young, and at the same time never entertain the least Notion of the Existence of any other Nature besides the Female in those Subjects who are thus depriv’d of that useless Part.
This Knowledge is not confin’d to Men of Science alone amongst the Egyptians and Ethiopians, nor indeed amongst the Asiaticks; for every Parent knows when the Child has this part longer than ordinary, and performs the Operation at a proper Time; which De Graaff seems very much to approve[28]: ‘And the Excision of this Part is as necessary as it is decent to those Eastern People.’—Which was also perform’d and taught, by several of the ancient Physicians[29], as particularly as any other Operation whatsoever; and yet even in our own Days, we find some Anatomists of Repute confessing a double Nature, and a Mixture of Sexes in the same Body, and others calling the Labia pudendi a divided Scrotum, and fancying Urine and Semen to pass thro’ the Clitoris. But it is observable, that where there is a perfect Penis and Scrotum found in a Child, there is never the least Sign of any Part proper to a Female annexed to it; but that, on the contrary, whatsoever Subject is said to be an Hermaphrodite has the Feminine Parts in Perfection, and no Penis nor Scrotum, nor, according to De Graaf’s Dissection, any Organ serving to their Nutrition, Action, Accretion, or any other Function, but only the Clitoris (common to all Women) somewhat larger than Ordinary, which will fully appear when we come to speak of him.
There are many Authors who have given Histories of Women that have been detected in the Abuse of such large Clitorides, calling them Τριβας, Confricatrices, and the like, the Recital of one from Tulpius[30] may not be amiss, who after relating some Passages transacted by one of these and a certain Widow, makes this Reflection, ‘Though the Clitoris for the most Part lies hid, yet several have it so large, that they are thought by the Ignorant to be transformed into Men; but that this (whose History he writes) was in all respects a perfect Woman, having only the Clitoris half a Finger’s Length.’ And since this worthy Author has given us this Story so suitable to our present Purpose, it will not be unseasonable in this Place, to take some Notice of a Memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society, presented by one Dr Thomas Allen[31], the Subject of which he calls an uncommon Lusus, and says, ‘This Hermaphrodite is not to be reckon’d amongst the Τριβαδες of the Greeks, nor to be equal’d by any Description yet extant.’ These Τριβαδες were no more than Women with Clitorides larger than ordinary. Such of them as are so may be capable, perhaps, of that Action from whence the Name arose, whether they perform it or not; and by considering the Sequel of this History, we shall find the Subject he describes to be no other than a very Woman, such as Tulpius has given the History of. He says, ‘at six Years of Age, the Child playing and wrestling with her fellow Children, there appeared two Tumours like Hernias, but they proved Testicles, differing from those of a Man only in this, that each had its own distinct Scrotum; but in such a Manner, that the Production of both form’d the Labia of the Vulva.’
Our Author, after arming our Imaginations with an Expectation of something very extraordinary proceeds to describe a true Female Child, only he would allow her a Pair of Testes, but instantly owns the Scrota of these form’d the Labia. It would have been altogether as well to have said at once, the Labia were thicker than ordinary, for he could not positively say they were Testes without the Dissection of them, which was out of his Power, since we find him tracing her History to a more advanced Age. But further, he proceeds thus:
‘In the Sinus, or Fissura Magna, the Nymphæ and Carunculæ myrtiformes appear’d entire, and half the Vulva was cover’d with a thin Membrane from the Perinæum; and there was no Appearance of a Clitoris; the Uterus and its Neck were exactly like those of a Female.’
What has this Author described here, but a perfect Female? As to the Nymphæ’s being entire, they are never known to be otherwise, except a Dilaceration of them happens by some violence; the Carunculæ are indeed liable upon slight Occasions to be broken, however in so young a Subject it would be very strange to find them so, therefore there is nothing extraordinary in this Part of his Description; but if he should mean by the Word entire, that these two Parts were conjoin’d together, his Notion of them seems somewhat imperfect, for the Nymphæ have their rise at the Clitoris, and are lost on each Side before they reach the Orifice of the Vagina; whereas the Carunculæ Myrtiformes are within the same, out of any Manner of Communication with the former. The thin Membrane[32] from the Perinæum that cover’d half the Orificium Vaginæ is not an uncommon case; for in several this Skin runs over the whole Part, and therefore this, no more than any Part of the above Description, is to be counted proper to an Hermaphrodite. Again, there was no Appearance of a Clitoris, and the Uterus and its Neck were exactly like those of a Female. Though the Clitoris might have been then but small, yet that she had it is most certain, for in some they grow surprisingly in a little Time, and what our Author calls a Penis afterwards is nothing else; but how he could find out that the Uterus and Cervix were like others is a Riddle, since every Anatomist knows how remote these are from Sight in a living Subject.