At last he says, ‘she pass’d for a Woman till the thirteenth Year,——when kneading of Dough, all of a sudden, a Penis broke forth, four Inches long in an Erection, situated as in a Man, with a Glans and Præputium fasten’d to the Frænum, but the Glans being imperforated——deny’d egress to the Semen, wherefore it made its way thro’ the Pudendum Muliebre, possibly in a refluent Manner.’
It is no wonder she should pass for a Woman, who, according to our Author, had all the Feminine Parts to such Perfection; and though the Accretion and Protrusion of the Clitoris was never so sudden, yet there is not the least Reason to ascribe to her a virile Nature, because the Female Parts remain’d as perfect as before, without the lead Metamorphosis, and she had her Menses regularly from her sixteenth during the two following Years, at which time, says our Author they ceased, and she began to have a Beard, Hair on her Body, Voice, Breasts, Thorax, Ischia, and many other things like those of a Man. However, this sudden Growth of the Clitoris is not to be credited, for those who shew a Child of this Nature will tell any Lye to render the Thing more surprising, as, for example, who by reading the Bill of the little French Girl, could imagine any other than that, in an erect Posture, she was only 16 Inches high? Whereas when her Limbs came to be view’d, the Spectators found themselves mistaken, for the Person never set forth in his Bill that she sat when she was measured, or that her Limbs were folded over each other. Hence it appears that the Narrations of these kind of Things are always false, and the Subjects never answer the Character or Description of them given by the Owners.
The Doctor here believes the Man’s Description of this Subject, and accordingly gives the Memoir to the Royal Society; but the Owner makes a Change in his Story of the Girl when he carries her to Utrecht, where he shew’d her in 1668, at which time she was about one or two and twenty Years old, being born in February 1647, according to our Author, and in that Town she had her Menses regularly, which the Doctor says stopp’d at her eighteenth Year; but the Variation made in the History of her will farther appear, when we come to take notice of Diemerbroeck who saw her at that Town in Holland, and gives a History of her in his Book of Anatomy.
The Doctor calls the Extremities of the Nymphæ a Frænum, which he says fasten’d the Glans and Præputium; for in all Females of this kind, the Nymphæ arise in an acute Angle on the under side of the End of the Clitoris, which will appear in our Description hereafter, but owns ‘the Glans was imperforated, wherefore the Semen made its way through the Pudendum Muliebre;’ it would have been better and more judicious, not to have said a Word of the Semen’s being deny’d a Passage thro’ the Glans, and so going back in a refluent Manner the other Way, except he had a Mind to demonstrate by what Road it had such a refluent Passage. The inconsistencies that appear thro’ this whole Narration from first to last, should promise no great Credit, for it is entirely taken from the Owner of the Girl, and securely presented to the Royal Society, without the Author’s considering that no one Part of his History can be reconciled to the known Laws of the Structure of the human Body. I should not omit in fine, to take notice of one Word more, ‘That at the Sight of a Woman her Penis was erected, and became flacid at the Sight of a Man;’ from this I can conceive no other, than that she had more desire to the Woman than the Man; and yet a little after he says, she cast her Eyes upon a handsome Man and fell in Love with him. But as I have said above, Diemerbroeck will in his turn illustrate more particularly how little credit ought to be given to the Tales of Shew-men, by the Learned.
It has been often argued by Authors, that these Confricatrices are more inclined to desire the Access of Women than of Men, and being willing to favour the Opinion of both Sexes being found in one Person, draw from that Argument this Conclusion, that therefore there must be as much of a Masculine nature, as of a Female in them. To this it is answer’d: That they do not desire Women more than Men, from a mere natural Inclination, but because by a Gratification of this Nature there is not so much danger of being expos’d; therefore a Congress like this is the more eagerly sought after, and agreed on by two Females so inclin’d, since by an over long Clitoris in one, both find their accounts answer’d, without fear of that Accident, that is the necessary Consequence of dealing with Men; for that Part being, as all allow, the Seat of great Titulation, it is no wonder it should be stimulated by being embraced in the Vagina, nor that the Receiver should also be effected by such Frication, as well as by a Penis Virilis; thus I hope it appears plainly that this Conclusion is ill grounded.
Another Argument made use of is: that those reputed Hermaphrodites have Beards like Men and Hair on some of their Breasts. This can make but very little towards proving a Masculine Nature in them; for supposing some of these Fricatrices to have Hair &c. as above, yet there are many Women with Hair between their Breasts and on their Chins, who deserve no such Repute; one I have often seen whose Arms to the Fingers Ends were covered with long black Hair, having a Beard also on her Chin, who was the Wife of a Man of Fortune by whom she had eight or nine Children. I have also, at the Hôtel de Dieu at Paris, seen a Body open’d that was hairy in the same Manner, without any Sign of a Masculine Nature whatsoever. Again, several Women advanced in Years have great Quantities of Hair on the Chin, but the Number of these as well as the former, among Women, are but few; and those that are so ought no more to have any such Character ascribed to them, on that account, than that many Men who want Beards should be said to partake of a Feminine Nature, and want the Power of exercising the Functions of a Man; but daily Experience shews us these are as prolifick, and produce as many Signs of Virility, as any others whatsoever.
There have been many Reports of Persons who, in a certain Process of Time, have been said to change their Sex; and many[33] Authors have handed such Accounts with great Confidence to the rest of Mankind, which, like a Contagion, has infected them into a Belief of the Matter; a brief View of the Source of such Rumours may be of Use here, to shew how credulous some have been in receiving Stories of strange Things, and how indolent and supine in finding out the Truth of such.
1. The First Origin or Reason of this Notion then appears in the Account of Dr Allen’s Hermaphrodite, viz. that the Girl was changed into a young Man; which is so clearly laid down already in his Story, that here needs no Repetition.
2. The Second appears to be taken from actual Male Children, who were sometimes mistaken for Females at their Birth, only from the Penis’s being as it were shrunk into a Chink, and the Testes also not yet fallen into the Scrotum, which remaining so for some time till (a proper Sense of the Sex beginning to dawn in them) the Parts begin to swell, and be protruded and extended towards a natural Size. Thus several Children have been, through Ignorance, baptized, habited, and reputed Maidens; and, upon the aforesaid Protrusion of the Parts, said to change their Sex and be transformed into Men; which many Writers have taken Pains to maintain.