Author, had all the Feminine Parts to such Perfection; and though the
Accretion and Protrusion of the Clitoris was never so sudden, yet there
is not the least Reason to ascribe to her a virile Nature, because
the Female Parts remain’d as perfect as before, without the lead
Metamorphosis, and she had her Menses regularly from her sixteenth during
the two following Years, at which time, says our Author they ceased, and
she began to have a Beard, Hair on her Body, Voice, Breasts, Thorax,
Ischia, and many other things like those of a Man. However, this sudden
Growth of the Clitoris is not to be credited, for those who shew a Child
of this Nature will tell any Lye to render the Thing more surprising, as,
for example, who by reading the Bill of the little _French_ Girl, could
imagine any other than that, in an erect Posture, she was only 16 Inches
high? Whereas when her Limbs came to be view’d, the Spectators found
themselves mistaken, for the Person never set forth in his Bill that she
sat when she was measured, or that her Limbs were folded over each other.
Hence it appears that the Narrations of these kind of Things are always
false, and the Subjects never answer the Character or Description of them
given by the Owners.
The Doctor here believes the Man’s Description of this Subject, and
accordingly gives the Memoir to the _Royal Society_; but the Owner makes
a Change in his Story of the Girl when he carries her to _Utrecht_, where
he shew’d her in 1668, at which time she was about one or two and twenty
Years old, being born in _February_ 1647, according to our Author, and in
that Town she had her Menses regularly, which the Doctor says stopp’d at
her eighteenth Year; but the Variation made in the History of her will
farther appear, when we come to take notice of _Diemerbroeck_ who saw
her at that Town in _Holland_, and gives a History of her in his Book of
Anatomy.
The Doctor calls the Extremities of the Nymphæ a Frænum, which he says
fasten’d the Glans and Præputium; for in all Females of this kind, the
Nymphæ arise in an acute Angle on the under side of the End of the
Clitoris, which will appear in our Description hereafter, but owns ‘the
Glans was imperforated, wherefore the Semen made its way through the
Pudendum Muliebre;’ it would have been better and more judicious, not
to have said a Word of the Semen’s being deny’d a Passage thro’ the
Glans, and so going back in a refluent Manner the other Way, except he
had a Mind to demonstrate by what Road it had such a refluent Passage.
The inconsistencies that appear thro’ this whole Narration from first
to last, should promise no great Credit, for it is entirely taken from
the Owner of the Girl, and securely presented to the _Royal Society_,
without the Author’s considering that no one Part of his History can be
reconciled to the known Laws of the Structure of the human Body. I should
not omit in fine, to take notice of one Word more, ‘That at the Sight of
a Woman her Penis was erected, and became flacid at the Sight of a Man;’
from this I can conceive no other, than that she had more desire to the
Woman than the Man; and yet a little after he says, she cast her Eyes
upon a handsome Man and fell in Love with him. But as I have said above,
_Diemerbroeck_ will in his turn illustrate more particularly how little
credit ought to be given to the Tales of Shew-men, by the Learned.
It has been often argued by Authors, that these Confricatrices are more
inclined to desire the Access of Women than of Men, and being willing to
favour the Opinion of both Sexes being found in one Person, draw from
that Argument this Conclusion, that therefore there must be as much of
a Masculine nature, as of a Female in them. To this it is answer’d: That
they do not desire Women more than Men, from a mere natural Inclination,
but because by a Gratification of this Nature there is not so much danger
of being expos’d; therefore a Congress like this is the more eagerly
sought after, and agreed on by two Females so inclin’d, since by an over
long Clitoris in one, both find their accounts answer’d, without fear of
that Accident, that is the necessary Consequence of dealing with Men; for
that Part being, as all allow, the Seat of great Titulation, it is no
wonder it should be stimulated by being embraced in the Vagina, nor that
the Receiver should also be effected by such Frication, as well as by a
Penis Virilis; thus I hope it appears plainly that this Conclusion is ill
grounded.
Another Argument made use of is: that those reputed Hermaphrodites have
Beards like Men and Hair on some of their Breasts. This can make but very
little towards proving a Masculine Nature in them; for supposing some of
these Fricatrices to have Hair _&c._ as above, yet there are many Women
with Hair between their Breasts and on their Chins, who deserve no such
Repute; one I have often seen whose Arms to the Fingers Ends were covered
with long black Hair, having a Beard also on her Chin, who was the Wife
of a Man of Fortune by whom she had eight or nine Children. I have also,
at the _Hôtel de Dieu_ at _Paris_, seen a Body open’d that was hairy
in the same Manner, without any Sign of a Masculine Nature whatsoever.
Again, several Women advanced in Years have great Quantities of Hair on
the Chin, but the Number of these as well as the former, among Women, are
but few; and those that are so ought no more to have any such Character
ascribed to them, on that account, than that many Men who want Beards
should be said to partake of a Feminine Nature, and want the Power of
exercising the Functions of a Man; but daily Experience shews us these
are as prolifick, and produce as many Signs of Virility, as any others
whatsoever.
There have been many Reports of Persons who, in a certain Process of
Time, have been said to change their Sex; and many[33] Authors have
handed such Accounts with great Confidence to the rest of Mankind, which,
like a Contagion, has infected them into a Belief of the Matter; a brief
View of the Source of such Rumours may be of Use here, to shew how
credulous some have been in receiving Stories of strange Things, and how
indolent and supine in finding out the Truth of such.
1. The First Origin or Reason of this Notion then appears in the Account
of Dr _Allen_’s Hermaphrodite, _viz._ that the Girl was changed into a
young Man; which is so clearly laid down already in his Story, that here
needs no Repetition.
2. The Second appears to be taken from actual Male Children, who were
sometimes mistaken for Females at their Birth, only from the Penis’s
being as it were shrunk into a Chink, and the Testes also not yet fallen
into the Scrotum, which remaining so for some time till (a proper Sense
of the Sex beginning to dawn in them) the Parts begin to swell, and be
protruded and extended towards a natural Size. Thus several Children have
been, through Ignorance, baptized, habited, and reputed Maidens; and,
upon the aforesaid Protrusion of the Parts, said to change their Sex and
be transformed into Men; which many Writers have taken Pains to maintain.
Of this Nature, was one seen by _Casp. Bauh._[34], and _Fæl. Plat_,
who was called _Anne_, about 23 Years old, and was hir’d as a Maid
Servant to a Countryman; The Master observ’d, that this Servant, upon
some Occasions, was in greater favour with his Wife, than himself; and
therefore brought the Affair before a Magistrate, who committed the
Examination of the Person to these two Physicians, the former of whom
gives the following Account of the Matter[35]:
‘He was tall and thin, having a Masculine Voice, a long Head of Hair,
and only some softish Hairs on his Chin, (for he us’d to pluck his Beard
with a Tweezer as fast it grew) he had no Breasts, but was hairy about
the Pubis, and had a long Penis, and the Præputium drawn back and well
worn; he had no Scrotum nor Testes that were visible: Under the Penis,
in the Perinæum, where Lithotomy is commonly perform’d, there was a kind
of Chink, about half a Finger’s Joint deep, _&c._ from all which we
judg’d him a Man rather than a Woman. Being ask’d concerning his venereal
Performances, he confess’d, that he had cohabited with several Whores,
with a seminal Ejection and much Pleasure; and further, that whenever
he had to do with any, or ever had an Erection of his Penis, a Testicle
swell’d in his Right-Groin, (for sometimes the Testes do not descend into
the Scrotum, but remain in the Inguina) which we perceiv’d by touching,
but that on the left Side, nothing was to be perceiv’d neither during the
Coitus nor otherwise; nor did any thing ever flow from the aforesaid Rima
or Chink.’
Here was therefore a perfect Man, mistaken for a Female Child at the
Birth, on account of the invisibility of the Testes, and the Appearance
of that superficial Chink in the Perinæum[36].
3. A Third Reason for such Reports has been taken from Boys having been
concealed in Female Dresses, for some political or family Occasions, and
so continu’d under that Acceptation, till either Matters came to such a
Crisis as render’d their Case less dangerous, or till Beards and other
Signs of Virility have occasion’d a Declaration of their true Sex, and
a Change of Habit. The Vulgar now make a Rumour of a miraculous Change
in Children, whom they before accepted of as Females; the Report takes
wing, and is catch’d by several who commit the Story superstitiously to
Posterity, without any Manner of Enquiry into the Nature of the Thing.
A Case of this Nature is cited by _Diemerbroeck_, which happen’d in the
Time of _Ferdinand_ I, King of _Naples_; it was of two Children, who were
call’d _Carola_ and _Francisca_, and were reported to have changed their
Sexes upon the Appearance of Beards growing on them, which their Mother
gave out was miraculously done, upon which she changed their Habits
for those of Men. The Story reached _Fulgosus_’s Ears, and he wrote it
confidently and securely, and yet our Author _Diemerbroeck_ discredits
it very much, since the Rumour proceeded from the Mother and no other
Witness, with whom the rational Part of the World must concur.
_Johan. Bauhin._ furnishes _Skenckius_[37] with a History of a young
Man, who was thought to be a Girl, by all his Acquaintance; because he
sat in the Manner of Women to make Water, which was occasion’d by the
Glans Penis’s being imperforated, and having a Passage for Urine under
the Penis; he lay with Women and was dress’d and employ’d as one all his
Life; and dying of a Pestilential Disease, was, by order of a Magistrate,
open’d, and found to be a perfect Man in all respects, without any Part
proper to the other Sex in the least.
In all probability, if he had been detected, when alive, he would have
pretended a miraculous Change of Sex as did the Mother of the above
_Carola_ and _Francisca_.
There[38] was an Opinion amongst the _Greek_ and _Arabian_ Physicians,
concerning a great Analogy between the Male and Female Genitals as to
their Structure, who strenuously assert, that these differ in nothing
but their Situation, that is, they compare the Cervix and Vagina Uteri
to the Penis, and the Fundus to the Scrotum, only they are inverted or
rather not protruded, and that which hinders their Protrusion in Women,
according to these Authors, is the want of Heat and sufficient force of
Nature. It would be a Digression from our present Purpose, if we should
enter upon a comparative View of the Parts of Generation of both Sexes,
and endeavour to confute those Chimeras, and therefore the Use that is
at present necessary to be made of this Opinion, is only to shew that
this was another Origin from whence these Reports of such Metamorphoses
have sprung and been encouraged, as well as any of those others already
taken notice of. For admitting that Hypothesis, _viz._ that every Woman
is a Man, if she had but heat of Temperament and Strength sufficient to
drive the inside of the Uterus, _&c._ outward, and that that Inversion
should form a Penis and Scrotum, which was the general Notion amongst
some of the Learned a long time after _Galen_; I say, admitting this was
now the reigning Notion, we should upon the least Appearance of any thing
strange in the Parts of Generation, be as ready still to acquiesce to
any Rumour of the Change of Sex, _&c._ as ever, having so easy a Manner
of accounting for it, as the _Calor eximius & Naturæ Vis_, which was the
fashionable Cause to which Changes of this Nature were always ascribed,
both by the _Greeks_ and _Arabians_.
It will not be improper here to observe, that all these Changes in the
Sex were most commonly said to be made from Women to Men; and I never
could hear any Account whatsoever of Mens being chang’d into Women, but
two or three, one of which happened here in _London_; the Story will not
only be of use to our Purpose, but a merry one, and therefore take it
briefly as follows: At a great Tavern in _London_[39], there lived, some
few Years ago, two Drawers who were a considerable Time Servants in the
House, and always lay together; one of them gets the other with Child,
who was with a great deal of Shame and Confusion turn’d away, and oblig’d
then to put on Womens Clothes. The Rumour of the Drawer’s being chang’d
into a Woman made a great Noise all over the Neighbourhood, and very
likely would have been recorded for Truth, if it had happen’d in an Age
little earlier.
Here was a poor Girl whose Parents ignorantly believing she was a Boy
from the Length of the Clitoris, dress’d her up, and employ’d her as
such in the Business of Life; she no doubt believ’d herself so, until
she was better instructed by her Fellow-Servant; and here is Matter and
Foundation, altogether as probable and sufficient for Poets or Historians
to build upon, as any heretofore taken notice of; and, in fine, hence it
plainly appears, that it is with equal right, that human Nature may be
said to be capable of admitting of two Natures Male and Female, in one
Body, and of changing from one Sex to the other.
Another is told by[40] _Caspar Bauhin_. of a Child who was baptized as
a Male, and was brought up a Taylor by Trade, went afterwards into the
Army, and serv’d as a Soldier both in _Hungary_ and _Flanders_, marry’d
a Wife, and liv’d seven Years with her, at the End of which, our Soldier
one Night rose from the Wife, complaining of great pains in the Belly,
and in half an Hour, was delivered of a Daughter. When the Story came
before the Magistrates, an Examination was made, and the poor Female
Soldier confess’d herself of both Sexes, and that a _Spaniard_ had
cohabited with her once (only) in _Flanders_, by which she proved with
Child; that the Wife had concealed her want of what might be expected
from a Husband, with whom she never was able to act in any wise, during
their (seven Years) living together.
The Author introduces this Story in the following Words[41]. ‘As the
following History is of no small Importance in explaining the Nature of
Hermaphrodites, I have translated it thus from the _German_ Language.’
From which Words it appears, that he had a very just Notion concerning
them, and was so far from making such things Prodigies, being well versed
in the Knowledge of the Animal Structure, that he counts the History
of this, and another Soldier whom _Keckermannus_ gives an account of,
sufficiently explicatory of the Nature of Hermaphrodites in general.
The Parents of these could have no other Motive for thinking these
Creatures Boys, than the Length of the Clitoris; which is plain from
their bearing Children when they came to Age; and if any thing of a
Masculine Nature was in the Soldier, it could surely in seven Years
Acquaintance have been exerted to the Gratification of a Wife, or would
have produced some other Effects very different from that of being got
with Child.
CHAP. II.
_An historical and critical Account of the Causes of Hermaphrodites._
If Hermaphrodites actually existed, sure there might have been before
now some probable Conjectures made to shew the Reasons, or Necessity of
such Beings upon Earth, since so many Authors have been busy’d about
them from the Beginning of the World. But there appears throughout their
several Opinions, so general a Train of Absurdities, that I cannot but
wonder, they were any more satisfactory to Mankind in their Days than
they are to me at present. However, when the several Causes laid down by
certain Authors from Time to Time, for the producing of those Creatures,
are consider’d, it will not be difficult Matter to point out innumerable
Errors amongst them, and deny that those Causes can produce any such
Effect as a double Nature in human Bodies.
The first then that I shall take notice of is that of _Constantinus
Africanus_[42], who accuses Nature of being hindered, or of forgetting
its duty in the Formation of the Fœtus, and by this Mistake
Hermaphrodites are generated.
‘[43]It happens to some Men, in Generation, to have added to them those
Female Parts, and to some Women those Masculine Parts that are luxuriant
in them, when Nature is hinder’d, or grows forgetful; for when by any
Accident it happens thus, that Superfluity of humid Matter that usually
contributes to either the inordinate Size or Number of any Limb, goes to
the Formation of a Member of any other Nature without Rule or Order.’
Before we can in any wise understand whether the Cause assigned by
this Author be just or not, we must guess at what he means by the Word
_Nature_.
Amongst the Poets, and some Philosophical Authors, _Natura_ and _Deus_
may be conceived to signify the same Thing; in this Sense, not the least
Impediment can be ascribed, nor Oblivion attributed to it.
If it be a Term used to hint at the _Vis Formatrix_, or at the Matter of
which the Fœtus is form’d, his Reason for giving this as a Cause will
appear to be as ill grounded as any other; because as to the latter, all
reasonable Men must allow, that as Matter is totally passive, it cannot
be said to err or forget; and as to the former, if such an occult Power
existed, it must have been by God’s Appointment, and consequently not
liable to such Imperfections, in conducting so great a Work as that of
Generation, with which so many Authors have taken much pains to charge
this Vis Plastica; but of both these in another Place.
_Avicenna_[44] sums up a great many Causes for Masculinity and Femineity,
as his Translator _Gerardus Cremonensis_ translates it: For the former,
or the Production of Males, the Heat and Abundance of the _Sperma
virile_; its being promoted from the right Testicle; because (according
to our Author) it is of a thicker Consistence, more hot, and drawn
from the Right-Rein, _è rene dextro_; which is, says he, both warmer
and higher than the other as being nearer the Liver; its falling into
the right Side in the Coitus, _&c._ and that on the other Hand Females
are engender’d by Causes contrary to these: All these Opinions he has
gather’d from _Hypocrates_, _Galen_, and _Rhasus_, and because he does
not seem in the least, to contradict them, we are inclin’d to believe
them his own also.
Now from this Manner of accounting for Masculinity and Femineity, or the
Production of Males and Females, there arises a third Doctrine to which
this Author seems to assent, and by which he accounts for the rise of
Hermaphrodites; and tho’ he confesses that some say so; which signifies
he has it from others, yet he delivers it with an Air of Approbation, and
consequently was not displeased with the Hypothesis[45].
‘And some say, that if it runs from the Right-side of the Man to the same
of the Woman, it produces a Male; and from their Left-sides a Female; and
if from the Man’s Left-side to the Right of the Woman, the Production
will be a masculine Woman; but if from his Right, to her Left-side, it
will be a feminine Male.’
If the old Doctrine[46] of Males being proper to the Right-sides, and
Females to the Left, of both Sexes, in the Act of Generation, were
true, (which cannot but seem obsolete before even a Capacity of the
lowest Class) this crossing the Strain, in the Manner he relates, might
hold, and would not be an unpleasant Method of explaining the Nature of
the Growth of these Androgyni; but I believe, that Notion is so much
exploded already, as not to need taking pains to Invalidate.
Let us, however, accept it as this Author’s Opinion, and a Variety from
that of any other; and proceed to shew, that _Lemnius_ has mistaken
_Avicenna_, when he ascribes to him the Opinion contained in the
following Words[47].
‘When the Menses have come down, and the Uterus is cleansed, which
happens about the fifth or seventh Day, if a Man cohabits with a Woman
any time from the first to the fifth after they have ceased, a Male will
be begotten; from thence to the eighth a Female; again from that to the
twelfth a Male; but after that an Hermaphrodite.
For the Words of _Avicenna_ according to _Gerrard_’s Translation, are
very different from the above quoted by _Lemnius_, tho’ they import the
same thing; yet they are far from being his Opinion, because he plainly
rejects it as unreasonable, having it from another[48] Author, thus
_Avicenna_[49]:
‘And some of them say, who speak without Reason, _&c._’
Now since he absolutely declares, they who think thus are without Reason,
it follows that _Lemnius_ had no right to quote him, for the only
Opinion he dislikes, of those contained in the whole Chapter; but to
whomsoever the Opinion belongs, there is a Necessity for the following
Animadversions upon it.
If a limited Time was necessary thus for the procreating of the
different Sexes, as, that for the first five Days after the Cessation
of the menstrual Discharge, Males only are begotten, it should have
been universally known by Experience long ago, since the Opinion was as
early as _Avicenna_; and none of those that we daily see very anxious
for Male Heirs, would ever want them, if their Consorts were breeding
Women, and this the Case. Again, no Lady that languishes for a little
Daughter amongst her Sons, would be long in Pain about it, if she could
by Coition at any certain Time be capable of chusing one; nor in fine,
would any such Appearance happen in human Nature, as is erroneously
reputed Hermaphrodital, if such were never produced, but after the
twelfth Day from those times of the Menses; for Mankind would, at such
Seasons, avoid the Act of Generation; lest Beings so infamous, as they
are superstitiously thought, should be the Product of their Embraces.
‘Yet, notwithstanding _Avicenna_ (says _Lemnius_[50]) does not account
for this Doctrine, I will endeavour to reason upon it, and support it;’
which is an Evidence that he was so fond of it, that besides laying it
down as the Opinion of the former, in order to gain the more Credit
for the Notion, he runs into an anatomical Way of enlarging on it; the
bare Recital of which, without the least Animadversion on it, will be
sufficient to shew every judicious Reader, how Errors beget Errors, and
may successively do so, to the End of time, whilst an implicit Credit is
given to Mysteries of this kind[51].
‘For at first, when the Uterus is cleansed by the Expurgation of the
Humours, it acquires greater Heat, whereby the Semen Virile mixes the
more powerfully with that of the Female, and is directed into the right
Sinus of the Uterus, by the attractive Force of the Liver and right
Kidney, from whence also, in these first Days, warm Blood is derived, to
the Nutrition of the future Fœtus: Nor can the Parts on the left Side,
being then cold, and void of Blood, immediately after the menstrual
Discharge, contribute any thing; but Blood is by degrees drawn from the
emulgent Veins of the left Side, which go into the Spleen and Kidney,
so that, from the fifth to the eighth Day, some Blood flows from them,
whereby the Fœtus is to be nourished; thus a Female is formed when these
Parts compass their Strength, or are esteem’d as those of the Right out
of their Situation, and also on Account of the Coldness of the Aliment.
After the eighth Day, the Parts on the Right-side take the Office of
preparing the Blood, which again begins to flow freely from them for the
Growth of a Male.
‘After this Number of Days, because the menstrual Blood flows
promiscuously, and the Matrix becomes too moist by the Afflux of
cold Humours, and the Blood not being determin’d to either Part, but
fluctuating in the middle of the Uterus, the Semina being there confus’d
together produce an Hermaphrodite; which, when conceiv’d, receives
Strength and Form sometimes from the right and sometimes from the left
Sinus, enjoying the Efforts of both; Hence _Androgyni_ or Hermaphrodites
spring up.’
Tho’ _Lemnius_[52] has made so large a Comment upon that Sentence,
which he would have us take for _Avicenna_’s Opinion, he is fond of
giving another Opinion of his own, which he supposes to account for
Hermaphroditism, and that is, any unusual or indecent Execution of the
Coition.
‘Sometimes this infamous Conception is form’d from an indecent and
unusual Copulation, as when the Man is supine, and the Woman prone in the
Act, _&c._’[53]