‘Altho’ the Androgyni, which are also call’d Hermaphrodites, are not often, yet, no doubt, they sometimes are, found, in whom the two Sexes are so apparent, that it is uncertain from which they should be named; however the Custom of speaking has prevail’d that they should be nominated after the superior Sex, which is the masculine, for no Body has ever said Androgynecas or Hermaphroditas.’
These amount to the Majority of the physical Causes, commonly assign’d for the Growth of Hermaphrodites; many more as unreasonable as these might be drawn from the Opinions of Astronomers[77], who have endeavour’d to account for such Births, by the Motions of certain planetary Bodies, that, they think, influence the Actions of Generation in a particular Manner, and produce Variety of Monsters; but what are already laid down, are fully sufficient to demonstrate the Errors that reign thro’ the whole; and that the Existence of Hermaphrodites being once granted amongst them, the greater the Number of Authors that strove to shew the Causes of their Generation, the greater the Distance to which Truth was banished on this Occasion.
Chap. III.
A general View of other Authors concerning Hermaphrodites.
It is observable, that when Authors are fond of having their Readers believe what they assert, they generally favour their own Opinions either in Descriptions or Figures, so much as even to stretch from the Truth of the Subject; which so far answers their Ends as to beget in some People, indolently credulous, a Belief of what they see, and leads them into an Error. This will appear, by the following Animadversions upon such Authors as I thought would further answer our Intentions on the present Occasion.
Of MANARDUS.
It is not much to be wondered at, that the Name Hermaphrodite should be so profusely made use of as it is among Men, when we find an Author of no small esteem giving the same Name, in a general Way, to such as were even troubled with several Kinds of Disorders in the Pudenda, besides a supposed Existence of both Sexes in the same Person; for Manardus[78] in a Letter to one Michael Sactanna, a Surgeon, sends him a List of the Diseases incident to the exterior Parts of the Body, with a short Definition of each, and speaking of such as he calls utrique Sexui communes has these Words[79]: