‘Hermaphrodites belong to the Urethra and Scrotum, if the Testicles should be hid in the Peritonæum, and the Scrotum empty; or opened in the middle from a Perforation in the Urethra; when the Sides of the Scrotum are like the Labia of the Pudenda of Women, and the Penis also very little; these Things have deceived ignorant Midwives, who often think such Children females at their Birth.’
Now it is plain, that tho’ he brings these Accidents and Diseases under that Denomination, which (as he was Professor) must have been only by way of School-Method, yet his Conclusion of this Paragraph shews that his Opinion was, that the Testes remaining hid in the Peritonæum, and the Scrotum empty with an Aperture in the middle, the Penis being extreamly small, were all Accidents that happened to the Male Sex, though judged to be Females by the Ignorance of Midwives, at the Time of their Birth; and, indeed, though the Testes may be not as yet come down, nothing can be conceived of such a Subject but the true Male Sex; but if the Sides of the Scrotum look like Labia, it must be a female Case with a prominent Clitoris, for it is absurd to think the Scrotum can be divided, as we have proved above. Again, this Author, after taking notice of some other Diseases of the Urethra of Males, and their Scrota, utterly denies that Females can be changed into the other Sex, but that Children reputed Females from some of the forementioned Disorders, have always proved to be Males in the End[107].
‘Such Subjects, after being thought Females, have at length proved Males, for no Woman was ever changed to a Man; but might be misjudged by the Length of the Clitoris, or an Hypersarcosis, arising from the Uterus, which might be in some Measure like a Penis in Form and Hardness, but not at all in the Composition or Structure, &c.’
In this Paragraph he is very particular upon the Reports of a Change of Sex, and adds, to the two former, these two other Ways of the Vulgar’s being deceived with respect to such Changes; as if he had said, ‘I know of no other way for changing a Woman into a Man, except you’ll have it that a long Clitoris, or an Hypersarchosis, growing out of the Vagina makes a Man.’—This he confirms again in his thirty-sixth Chapter of the same Book under his Medical Considerations on the feminine Parts of Generation, under the Head of Morbi Peculiares, where when he comes to the Clitoris he says[108]:
‘The Clitoris sometimes grows inordinately long, and counterfeits a Penis; it is called a Tail with which Women abuse one another; these are called Hermaphrodites, or Fricatrices, nor was it ever known, and it is impossible, that a Woman should be transformed into a Man. But a Male Child at it’s Birth being thought a Female, as was said before, when his Parts begin to come out which lay hid, may, indeed, become a Man.’
Hence it is plain, that our Author would make Use of the Word Hermaphrodite, not as crediting such an Existence, as it expresses, in human Nature; but as thinking it a Term fit only to serve him in his Explication of some of the Diseases of the Parts of Generation.
REGNERUS DE GRAAF.
This Author, in his particular Description of the Clitoris, gives a History of a Child born with that Part so large, that all who saw it pronounced it a Male Child; and it was accordingly baptized as such, and securely allowed to be a Boy. However, de Graaf had no such Opinion; for the Doubt that he, and others of the Faculty of Physick were in concerning this Child, caused a more narrow Enquiry into it’s Nature, which was favoured by it’s Death; and the Result of their Examination is very positively expressed by him thus[109]:
‘But an accurate Dissection of those Parts after Death has detected the Deceit, &c.’