Not a few old Authors[69] imagined there were several Cells and Ditches in the Uterus for the Reception of Fœtus’s of the different Sexes; and those who were of Opinion that the Cells were but seven, thought that three were on the Right-side for Males; as many on the Left, for Females; and the seventh in the middle for Hermaphrodites; which were generated, whenever the Semen Virile happen’d to fall into it. Another[70] supposes but three, one on each side for Males and Females, and the central Cell for Androgyni; and that ‘Nature always intends the Formation of a Male, being inclin’d to form the best; that a Woman is but a Man, having an accidental Change in the Parts, and is therefore a Monster in Nature; that a Male is always begotten, but because of the ill Disposition of the Matrix and the Object it contains, and the Inequality of the Semen, (whensoever Nature cannot accomplish the Formation of a perfect Man) a Female or Hermaphrodite must be the Consequence[71].’
If Nature intended the Procreation of no Sex but the Male, there would have been no Female; but if it was, at first, necessary, that a Female should accompany the Male in order to propagate their Likeness and Species, without which (it is evident) Generation could neither have been begun nor carry’d on, the same Necessity must always hold, and a Race of Females as well as Males ought always to continue, in order to carry on that great Work. How then are Women Monsters in Nature?
The first Woman as well as the first Man, when created, were endowed with different Organs serving to Generation, tho’ in all other Respects alike in their Members; and since every Woman afterwards had no difference in the Formation of those Parts, but must have been exactly the same with her Female Predecessors, even back to the first; by what Reason can her Parts be accounted monstrous or accidentally changed?
Besides, whatsoever is monstrous in Nature ought to be of no further Use in the Oeconomy of that particular System to which it properly may be said to belong, if in a natural State. But this Hypothesis is of such a Nature, as scarce to be worth taking any more trouble to confute, being the produce of a mere Monster in Nature.
St Augustin,[72] who was more inclin’d to deal in Matters metaphysical than natural, makes a long detail of several Kinds of Cripples, and what he calls monstrous Kinds of Men, such as, those having but one Eye in the Forehead, Pigmies, Sciopoda’s, Cynocephales, and such like; and proposes this Question: Whether it was from Adam, or the Sons of Noah, that such Kinds of Men had proceeded? But seems to believe that whatsoever they be, they were brought upon the Earth by the special Appointment of God[73].
This he gives as the Cause in general, but argues that the same will hold for those particularly believed to exist in this Part of the World, as Hermaphrodites, and those of a doubtful Sex[74].
‘The same Reason that accounts for the monstrous Births of Men with us, may serve to account also for those of Nations that are so; for God the Creator of all, knew when and where every thing should be created.’
As yet we know not of any Nation or Genus of Men heterogeneous to us in their Form, tho’ some[75] have wrote concerning such; but later Progresses and Discoveries round the World, shew us to the contrary; if such a Nation was to be found, we might indeed with some Reason, suppose them to be a Race, created on Purpose by God; but we must not therefore assent to the Saint, in imagining God to be the immediate Author of any Form in those poor Children (commonly call’d monstrous) that might be painful or disadvantageous to their well-being and Preservation; and therefore his Comparison is not justly laid down, because, tho’ the first Semina of any Species of Animals are planted by the Ordination of the Almighty, in an absolute Manner in the Beginning, from which they cannot digress in their successive Generations; yet a Woman, possessing all the greatest Beauties and Proportion in an hereditary Succession, may bring forth a Child, deformed in every Member; which can reasonably be accounted no other than one accidentally injured in the Uterus.
A Word or two more of this great Man may be necessary here, to shew that amongst those monstrous Births we have enumerated from him, he was not less certain of the Existence of Hermaphrodites, than of any other, which appears in these Words[76].