A mechanical and critical enquiry into the nature of hermaphrodites

by James Parsons

1. The Regio Pubis, with Pili upon it.

2. A Tumour or Swelling between the Inguen, and the upper Part of the Labium Vaginæ.

3. Nympha Luxurians, or as this Part is commonly called, tho’ very improperly, Clytoris, magnitudine aucta, that is, the true Nympha Muliebris, which is enlarged to an uncommon Length and Bigness, in which we may observe it’s Cutis Rugosa, or wrinkly Skin, which terminates in a Præputium, here turned back to shew it’s large Glans, in which there is not the smallest Perforation or Opening.

4, 5. The Labia opened and turned back, to shew the Entrance into the Vagina; the Labium on the left Side is of a natural Bigness for the Size of the Woman; but the other Labium is very large, in which is contained a hard Substance, surrounded with something soft to the touch, and which may be traced as coming down from the Inguen.

This Tumour, in my Opinion, is the real Ovarium or Testicle of that Side prolapsed, and fallen down from it’s natural Place within the Abdomen, thro’ the Fissure in the Muscles belonging to the last mentioned Part, into this Labium where it is lodged, covered with an Elongation in Form of a Bag or Sacculus from the Peritonæum, in which it lies enclosed together with the Tuba Falloppii, the Ligamentum uteri latum, and the Ligament that goes from the Testicle to the Uterus, in the very same Manner that the common Hernia’s, whether of the Intestinum, the Omentum, or both, are produced in Women.

My Reasons for this Conjecture (which was long ago simply proposed by Professor[119] Diemerbroeck, but without any Manner of Proof to support it) shall be given in a general Treatise of Hernia’s, which I have very near finished, and, I hope, will be published in a short Time; the Ovaria, or Testiculi Mulierum, being in the Number of those Parts that fall down from their natural Situation, and constitute that Disorder we call a Hernia or Rupture.

In my Collection of the morbid uterine Parts, I have two Preparations where the Ovaria and Extremities of the Tubæ Falloppianæ lie exactly on that Part of the Peritonæum, under which the Ligamenta uteri teretia seu rotunda do pass out from within the Abdomen; and the Fundus Uteri, instead of lying backwards on the Intestinum rectum and os Sacrum, is turned forwards, and lies on the Os Pubis and Vesica. This, I own, is only a conjectural Proof for the present, a real one cannot be offered till the Part itself, where the Tumour is, can be examined by ocular Inspection.

The Tumour marked 2, I take to be the Ovarium on the other Side, just clear of the abdominal Muscles, but not come low enough for the Labium, but will no doubt in Time, if not prevented by some outward Compression. I am informed, that the other Tumour came down gradually.