A mechanical and critical enquiry into the nature of hermaphrodites

by James Parsons

Of this Nature, was one seen by Casp. Bauh.[34], and Fæl. Plat, who was called Anne, about 23 Years old, and was hir’d as a Maid Servant to a Countryman; The Master observ’d, that this Servant, upon some Occasions, was in greater favour with his Wife, than himself; and therefore brought the Affair before a Magistrate, who committed the Examination of the Person to these two Physicians, the former of whom gives the following Account of the Matter[35]:

‘He was tall and thin, having a Masculine Voice, a long Head of Hair, and only some softish Hairs on his Chin, (for he us’d to pluck his Beard with a Tweezer as fast it grew) he had no Breasts, but was hairy about the Pubis, and had a long Penis, and the Præputium drawn back and well worn; he had no Scrotum nor Testes that were visible: Under the Penis, in the Perinæum, where Lithotomy is commonly perform’d, there was a kind of Chink, about half a Finger’s Joint deep, &c. from all which we judg’d him a Man rather than a Woman. Being ask’d concerning his venereal Performances, he confess’d, that he had cohabited with several Whores, with a seminal Ejection and much Pleasure; and further, that whenever he had to do with any, or ever had an Erection of his Penis, a Testicle swell’d in his Right-Groin, (for sometimes the Testes do not descend into the Scrotum, but remain in the Inguina) which we perceiv’d by touching, but that on the left Side, nothing was to be perceiv’d neither during the Coitus nor otherwise; nor did any thing ever flow from the aforesaid Rima or Chink.’

Here was therefore a perfect Man, mistaken for a Female Child at the Birth, on account of the invisibility of the Testes, and the Appearance of that superficial Chink in the Perinæum[36].

3. A Third Reason for such Reports has been taken from Boys having been concealed in Female Dresses, for some political or family Occasions, and so continu’d under that Acceptation, till either Matters came to such a Crisis as render’d their Case less dangerous, or till Beards and other Signs of Virility have occasion’d a Declaration of their true Sex, and a Change of Habit. The Vulgar now make a Rumour of a miraculous Change in Children, whom they before accepted of as Females; the Report takes wing, and is catch’d by several who commit the Story superstitiously to Posterity, without any Manner of Enquiry into the Nature of the Thing.

A Case of this Nature is cited by Diemerbroeck, which happen’d in the Time of Ferdinand I, King of Naples; it was of two Children, who were call’d Carola and Francisca, and were reported to have changed their Sexes upon the Appearance of Beards growing on them, which their Mother gave out was miraculously done, upon which she changed their Habits for those of Men. The Story reached Fulgosus’s Ears, and he wrote it confidently and securely, and yet our Author Diemerbroeck discredits it very much, since the Rumour proceeded from the Mother and no other Witness, with whom the rational Part of the World must concur.

Johan. Bauhin. furnishes Skenckius[37] with a History of a young Man, who was thought to be a Girl, by all his Acquaintance; because he sat in the Manner of Women to make Water, which was occasion’d by the Glans Penis’s being imperforated, and having a Passage for Urine under the Penis; he lay with Women and was dress’d and employ’d as one all his Life; and dying of a Pestilential Disease, was, by order of a Magistrate, open’d, and found to be a perfect Man in all respects, without any Part proper to the other Sex in the least.

In all probability, if he had been detected, when alive, he would have pretended a miraculous Change of Sex as did the Mother of the above Carola and Francisca.

There[38] was an Opinion amongst the Greek and Arabian Physicians, concerning a great Analogy between the Male and Female Genitals as to their Structure, who strenuously assert, that these differ in nothing but their Situation, that is, they compare the Cervix and Vagina Uteri to the Penis, and the Fundus to the Scrotum, only they are inverted or rather not protruded, and that which hinders their Protrusion in Women, according to these Authors, is the want of Heat and sufficient force of Nature. It would be a Digression from our present Purpose, if we should enter upon a comparative View of the Parts of Generation of both Sexes, and endeavour to confute those Chimeras, and therefore the Use that is at present necessary to be made of this Opinion, is only to shew that this was another Origin from whence these Reports of such Metamorphoses have sprung and been encouraged, as well as any of those others already taken notice of. For admitting that Hypothesis, viz. that every Woman is a Man, if she had but heat of Temperament and Strength sufficient to drive the inside of the Uterus, &c. outward, and that that Inversion should form a Penis and Scrotum, which was the general Notion amongst some of the Learned a long time after Galen; I say, admitting this was now the reigning Notion, we should upon the least Appearance of any thing strange in the Parts of Generation, be as ready still to acquiesce to any Rumour of the Change of Sex, &c. as ever, having so easy a Manner of accounting for it, as the Calor eximius & Naturæ Vis, which was the fashionable Cause to which Changes of this Nature were always ascribed, both by the Greeks and Arabians.