We have no more from this Author than the Sentiments of some of the Ancients concerning the Nature and Causes of Hermaphrodites, and therefore by his copying and assenting to them we may easily guess at what he thought of the Matter; however, in order to do him all the Justice imaginable, let us draw out such of his Words as are suitable to our present Purpose, and take a short View of them, by which we shall find as much will occur towards forwarding our Attempt, from an Examination of him, as from that of any other Author[91].
‘Hermaphrodites or Androgyni are Children born with a double genital Member, one Masculine the other Femine, and are therefore call’d in our Language Men and Women.’
This Definition appears very absolute with regard to the Existence of the Members of both Sexes in one Body, which our Author easily grants, because Aristotle and others after him has said it; but by considering his Division of Hermaphrodites in the next Sentence, and the Causes he assigns for them, we shall find his Account, and the Figures he has given us of them, to be partly copy’d and partly fictitious; here are then his Words faithfully taken from an Edition of his Works printed at Lyons in the Year M.dc.xli[92].
‘As to the Cause of Hermaphrodites, it is because the Woman affords as much seminal Matter as the Man, and because the forming Faculty always endeavours the Formation of things alike, that is from the Male Part of the Matrix a Male, and from the Feminine Part a Female; which is the Reason why two Sexes are found in one Body, call’d Hermaphrodites.’
It is of no inconsiderable use, upon examining any Subject, to observe particularly the Hypotheses upon which Authors seem to build Arguments for supporting what they publish to the World; because whether they follow the Sentiments of others or no, if any Absurdities should arise from such Reasonings, the Truth must still be remote, which is in its own Nature so clear as to shine forth without much Strife, when Arguments are founded upon Facts fairly stated. Let us therefore take notice of our Author professing, according to the Ancient Notions of Generation already hinted at, that an Hermaphrodite is produc’d from an equal Quantity of the Semina of both Male and Female, elaborated together with equal Force; which by virtue of the Vis Formatrix, or Vis Plastica, (the Author’s Vertue Formatrice) which he says, endeavouring always to form things alike, is the Reason why two Sexes are form’d in the same Body.
The present Notions of Generation are greatly different from what is here the Faith of our Author, because a better Knowledge of the Structure of the Parts, which are the Instruments of it, has taken Place; and certainly an Hypothesis is better founded upon an experimental Fact, than upon bare Supposition; for the Ancients, who knew nothing of the Uses of Ovaria, nor Fallopian Tubes, had no other Way of accounting for Generation, but this of our Author, which they suppos’d from only being sensible of an Injection of something in the Coitus from the Male, and again, from believing something to exist in the Female, which they also called Semen, the natural Conclusion that arose from this Consideration was, that an admixtion was made of both, and in order to complete the Work, that occult Finisher, ‘the Vis Formatrix,’ was summoned to assist till the Fœtus was moulded out. The most illiterate Grooms have the same Opinion ’till this Day (tho’ they never knew it was said by any Author) drawn from the same natural Reason only; for I have taken notice of one thing they do instantly after a breeding Mare is cover’d by a Horse; which is to throw a large Quantity of Water, that is always prepar’d for that Purpose, about her back Parts, which they say is done in order to make her cringe, and keep what she has received. And I have further observ’d, that when any Part of it has been rejected, immediately after the Coitus, by the Mare, they have despaired of any Benefit from the Access of the Horse. Hence it is plain that the Causes assign’d by our Author for the Production of this double nature in human Bodies, can produce no such Effect; for the World is by this time assur’d, that the Mechanism of Generation is otherwise carry’d on, and that no animal Being whatsoever is generated in the Manner laid down by our Author and his Predecessors, therefore no Hermaphrodite can be the Effect of such a Scheme of Generation. But now to his Division[93]:
‘Of which there are four Divisions, to wit, Male Hermaphrodites, who have the Male Sex perfect, and can engender properly, and have a Hole like the Vulva in the Perinæum, not at all penetrating into the Body, from which neither Urine nor Semen passes.’