Read Ebook: A mechanical and critical enquiry into the nature of hermaphrodites by Parsons James

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I should be glad to find out what these Qualities are, for as the Matter is stated it is hard to apply it; however therefore, if by the Contumacy of these Qualities, a Foetus may be impressed with two Sexes, we must conclude that human Nature is very unhappy under the Guidance of such capricious Directors; but he ought here more particularly to lay the blame to the Vis Formatrix; for tho' according to him either quality may be complexional of and terminating in its Sex; yet, these are but as Instruments made use of by the Vis Formatrix, to work upon the Matter withal; and therefore, the Tools used by a Workman may be as well blamed for making a bad Piece of Work, as these supposed Qualities; but as this Hypothesis in general, is as weak as any of the former, enough is said of it; let us therefore pass on to another, in which we shall find a great Variety.

Not a few old Authors imagined there were several Cells and Ditches in the Uterus for the Reception of Foetus'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 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, a Female or Hermaphrodite must be the Consequence.'

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 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.

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.

'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.'

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.

'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, 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.

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.

'In Women, above the Pudenda, by the Pubis, the Form of the Parts of a Man is prominent.'

The Second is the perfect Man still supposed, and the Likeness of the Pudenda Muliebria in the Perinaeum. This amounts to the same thing as the former, only the Thickness of the Labia reaches not down so far as the Fissura Magna is continued; and therefore he supposes, that beneath the said Protuberance, the rest of the Chink is the Perinaeum.

Here is an Author who makes a flourishing Division of the Word, and applies it to Cases not at all bearing the least Proportion or Propriety to the Nature or Sense of it; but rather alienates and disguises it, by endeavouring to appear to his Friend the more nice upon the Subject; but however, from what has been said of him, his Division seems to favour rather of Pedantry than Judgment.

'I happen'd to see such an Infant, whose Sex was hard to be determined; Testicles were indeed prominent without a Penis; under the Testicles there was a Rupture or Passage for the Urine, but because of the want of the Penis Nature found this Way for the Exit of the Urine. It was not baptized as a Female, nor an Androgynus, but a Male only.'

Here our Author needed not, in this Example of Ambiguity, to be at a stand with regard to the Sex, for from his own account, the Child was Male, since the Testiculi were conspicuous, tho' the Penis might not have been protruded; and where these are in a natural State, there cannot be any Part proper to a Female in the same individual Body. As to the Passage that nature found for discharging the Urine, this could never have been a sufficient Reason for the doubt he seems to lie under, of the Sex, because there is so wide a Difference between such preter-natural Foraminulae and the Pudenda Muliebria. He hints, that Nature was so kind to make that Passage on account of the want of the Penis, and yet is so loth to lose it quite, as to affirm that the Penis was not entirely wanting, but that it turn'd inward, and was carry'd down to the little Aperture under the Scrotum. This is a very odd kind of Structure, and in order to give Credit to our Author, we must first suppose such another Reflection of the Penis as that of the Aspera Arteria in the Sternum of the wild Swan.

I cannot devise by what Means Credit should be given to such Narrations as these, which so far digress from human Nature's Laws, when not accompanied with a very nice and particular anatomick Description of such Parts; and even that attested by Numbers of Persons equally skill'd in the same Science, or a publick Society of learned Men, whose Delight it is to enquire after Truth and rectify superstitious Allegations of all Kinds, especially in natural History. At last this Author, after informing us that the Child was received and baptiz'd by the People as a Male, and not a Female nor Hermaphrodite, concludes the Paragraph thus: 'But because such Subjects are better perceiv'd by the Understanding, than by Sight; I was not willing to represent it by any particular Figure.' He was very much in the Right not to give a Figure of this Subject from his Imagination only, which, I am sure, he as well as several other Authors have done before, without any other Authority than the Tradition of the People.'

This Author must not want a Place amongst the rest, who after he has given an account of the Dissection, mention'd in the Conclusion of this Treatise, proceeds to relate his Observations upon two Persons which he calls a Male Hermaphrodite, and a Female one; his Words are, 'I have moreover consider'd two living Hermaphrodites, one whereof was Male the other Female.'

But to our Author's Man Hermaphrodite:

'I made Observations on a living Man Hermaphrodite, who appeared as follows; He had a Penis and Scrotum with Testes, under which, in the Perinaeum where the Section is made for the Extraction of the Stone of the Bladder, there was a Hole in the Manner of a Vulva, but was not deep; and these are all the Hermaphrodites I have met with.'

What an Infatuation it looks like in Men, that so little Regard should be had either to the Nature of the Subject related, or even to the very Terms made use of to express the thing they would exhibit. This is plain in our Author, and indeed I cannot but think it a great deal more necessary than is commonly imagined, that the Choice of Terms should be well concerted, and adapted to any Subject with the utmost care; because a small Difference in a Word makes a great Variation in the Idea that should be proportioned to the thing treated of; and hence, much better Terms than that of Hermaphrodite might be drawn from the Diseases of either of the Subjects our Author writes of.

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.

'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.'

'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, 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 Foetus was moulded out. The most illiterate Grooms have the same Opinion 'till this Day 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:

'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 Perinaeum, not at all penetrating into the Body, from which neither Urine nor Semen passes.'

'The Woman Hermaphrodite, besides the Vulva which is well formed, and from which flows both Semen and Menses, has a Penis Virilis, situated above the said Vulva, near the Groin, without a Praeputium; but having a smooth Skin, which cannot be turned back; without any Erection; from which neither Semen nor Urine can pass; and having no Sign of a Scrotum, nor Testicles.'

This second Sort is what our Author calls his female Hermaphrodite; in this he owns the feminine Parts perfect and capable of all the natural Functions and Offices proper to them; but adds, that they have over them what he calls a Membre virile: It is very odd and preposterous to account this Part a Penis virilis, to which he does not allow a Praeputium, Power of Erection, a Passage for the Discharge of Urine, nor the least Sign of Scrotum nor Testes; his Opinion is just indeed, when he calls this subject a female; but when he tacks to it the Word Hermaphrodite, and calls the Clitoris a Membre virile, which should have all the Properties he denies it, in order to it's being so accounted, his Notion seems as injudicious as it is useless. But to his third Division:

'Hermaphrodites, which are neither the one Sex nor the other, are altogether excluded and exempt from the Power of generating, their Sexes being quite imperfect; and situated beside one another, and sometimes one above the other, serving for no other Use than for the Discharge of Urine.'

'Hermaphrodites, that are both Male and Female, are such as have the two Sexes perfectly formed, and capable of Generation.'

As to this fourth Division he makes of Hermaphrodites, which is allowing the Parts of both Sexes Perfection, as well as a Power of exercising either to the same Person, I believe, from what has been said, this, as well as the others before, may be set at nought; however, a Word or two more concerning the Reasons and Causes he assigns for Hermaphrodites will further confute this Author. The Cause he says is, as was before mentioned, an Elaboration, or working together with equal Force in all Respects, of the Semina of both Male and Female, in the Uterus, that produces the two Sexes in one Body. Now since according to this System several of the old Authors, from whom he had this Opinion, held the seminal Matter to be as absolutely necessary to Generation in a Woman, as in a Man; and as they were strongly of Opinion, that a Kind of Paste was formed of both together, to make a Foetus compleat, an equal Quantity on each Side ought to produce the more perfect Child, and not at all any thing monstrous, even according to this very System, held by them; and this agrees so well with another Part of their Opinions in general, that it is surprizing to find that Reason assigned for a Cause of a monstrous Production, which necessarily appears to be, in their own way of arguing, a much better one for the Formation of a perfect Child.

'Such as have two Natures are called Hermaphrodites; in Men it happens three different Ways; when there appears a small Vulva in the Perinaeum; again in the Scrotum, but without any Discharge of Excrements, and the same with a Discharge of Urine; in Women one Kind; when a Penis is prominent in the Place of the Clitoris, at the lower Part of the Pubis.'

'Some add, that above the Root of the Penis the Parts of a Woman are apparent.'

'In Women, when the Penis is situated either in the Groin or Perinaeum.'

'Hermaphrodites belong to the Urethra and Scrotum, if the Testicles should be hid in the Peritonaeum, 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 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 Peritonaeum, 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.

'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.

The History in full, with the Figure, he gives in another Place, of which let us consider the following Particulars.

When this Child died, our worthy Author, in Company with several Physicians and Surgeons, first had a drawing made of the exterior Appearance of the Parts of Generation, and then proceeded to open the Body, upon which they found the Uterus, Ovaria, Tubes, and spermatick Vessels according to the Standard of Nature; but seeing no Scrotum, they searched in the Groins and elsewhere for Testes but in vain; for neither these nor any other Signs of a Masculine Nature could be found. Then they proceeded to examine whether there was any Passage in the Clitoris, but were foiled in this also; but found the Urethra under it in the proper Place as in all Females, through which they passed an Instrument into the Bladder. Afterwards they inflated this Part which when it was very much distended, they compressed greatly to see if any Air could pass out by the Clitoris, but this likewise was to no Purpose; at length they cut the Clitoris across, but found not the least Sign of an Urethra, nor any other Thing but what is proper to that Part. From whence he concludes, that though it resembled a Penis virilis in all Respects, 'Yet we pronounced it not a Penis, but the proper Part of a Female, known by the Name of a Clitoris.'

To examine this Author, concerning his Opinion of Hermaphrodites, will be extreamly worth while; for we shall find him making the strongest Efforts to persuade the World, that a seminal Matter issues from the Clitoris, and making a great many Shifts to prove it, as if he had a Mind to introduce a Notion of a Power of ejecting a seminal Juice, from that Part in those Confricatrices, and thereby to render them equally capable of the Coitus in the Quality of either Sex: But how strange an Appearance does it make, to find him, in the end, giving Histories of several of these reputed Hermaphrodites, with some Animadversions on them, which serve to overturn and confute what he has taken no small Pains to maintain before.

'Lately a Woman of no little Credit complained to me, that in her younger Days, having early Desires, she often rubbed that Part with her Finger, so as to provoke the Emission of Semen with much Delight, and that in some time this ill Custom caused it to become a Disease.'

Here he makes a Passage through the Ligamenta Rotunda for Semen to come to the Clitoris, in order to make a close Analogy between the Penis and that Part; and, finding no Urethra, makes it pass out by the Pores of the Glans, and by way of Confirmation of his Opinion, tells the above Story from the Mouth of the Woman herself, believes her, and would have the World give Credit to it also.

In another Place he absolutely confesses, no Passage like an Urethra has hitherto been found upon Dissections in that Part; yet Reason tells me there must be one, though in dead Bodies it disappears; otherwise I demand by what Passage can such a Discharge proceed from these Confricatrices and Hermaphrodites. His Words are, 'Mulieres Confricatrices atque etiam Hermaphroditi.' As if these two Characters signified different Things, which in other Authors are esteemed the same. This is rivetting his Opinion of an Urethra, though none can be found, and totally omitting to make any more Use of his Argument of the Pores, whether wilfully, as believing it a weak one, or through Forgetfulness, we cannot say; but his subsequent Histories will shew, how he tumbles from this Notion into a direct Contradiction of a pervious Clitoris; and as to his Pretence of the Ligamenta Rotunda's being Vessels, every Anatomist is able to make a Judgment; and also of what Use it is to have a Discharge from the Clitoris, those in any wise acquainted with the Nature of Generation, and the Structure of the Parts, will easily refute.

Now we shall proceed to take notice of some of the Histories he gives concerning enlarged Clitorides in Women, which he takes from several Authors, and introduces in these Words:

'In Hermaphrodites this is the Part which, as it grows, resembles the Penis; this is plain, because no Perforation can be discerned in it.'

'This Subject, on the upper Part of the Pudenda, had a Clitoris as long as one's Finger, and as thick as a Penis; with a Glans, Frenulum, and Praeputium, as are seen in Men, except that the Glans was not pervious; below this there was an urinary Passage, and the Vagina Uteri as in Women; in each Labium there was a Testicle.'

In this History our Author owns, there was no Perforation to be seen in this large Clitoris; and as to the other Parts he describes no more than a perfect Woman.

'From all which it is plain, that these Kind of Hermaphrodites do not partake of both Sexes, but are only Women, whose Parts of Generation are illy formed, that is, the Testes have descended out of the Abdomen, and the Clitoris is grown too large.'

It would have been much more to the Credit of this Author to have subscribed to this Doctrine at once, without endeavouring to maintain, in so uncertain a Manner, any Thing that had the least Hint towards allowing a Perforation in the Clitoris, or a virile Nature to a Woman, and so suddenly to quit and contradict his former Opinion, in his Histories and Animadversions on them, which must be very obvious to any one that will allow himself Time and Liberty to consider the Animal Oeconomy, and the Laws of Nature, as far as they respect human Bodies.

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