Part 10

Of DIEMERBROECK.

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.

This Author asserts, that the Semen is brought partly from the Testes and Tubes by the Ligamenta Rotunda (which he calls Vessels, and adds, that heretofore they were improperly called Ligaments) and so emitted by the Glans; but how a Communication is carried on between these Ligaments and the Clitoris he has not given us the least Account; yet he persists very strenuously in that Opinion, tho’ he owns at the same Time, that upon the Dissection of these Parts no convenient Passage appears for such an Emission, and this turns him upon another Method of accounting for it, which is, that the Pores of the Glans are so distended by Heat, Agitation, &c. that Semen may easily pass forth. He backs this Opinion with a Story he tells, of a Patient that complained to him of an involuntary Emission from that Part, occasioned by her too frequent provoking it before; part of the Words of this History may not be amiss, in this Place, for the Reader’s Satisfaction.

‘Lately a Woman of no little Credit complained to me, that in her younger Days, having early Desires, she often rubbed that Part (the Clitoris) 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 (says he) 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 Sentence very much weakens his guess’d Opinion of the Urethra, which he does very often afterwards in his several Stories of these Creatures. The first he saw was in France, of about Twenty-eight Years of Age, which was shewed to the People for Money; he describes her thus:

‘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 Præputium, 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.

Another of these he saw at Utrecht, which her Owner told him was a perfect Female till between five and six Years old; at which Time she began to change, and at Eleven a Penis was grown conspicuous, but without a Perforation: the said Man told him also, that she had then her Menses periodically as other Women. She had below the Clitoris the Meatus Urinarius and Vagina properly situated, to which he adds a Testis in each Labium; and further, that there was a seminal Discharge upon Occasion, but that the Hermaphrodite did not know whether it was by the Clitoris, or the other feminine Parts. His Narration of this History begins thus, of which we shall insert but a few Words, the Substance being just mentioned above:

‘In Company with other Spectators, I have seen such another English Hermaphrodite, twenty-two Years old, here at Utrecht, &c.’

This is the Subject Dr Allen speaks of in the Transactions, which has been taken notice of before in this Treatise, that was carried to Flanders, and shewed to our Author; now whosoever will be at the Pains to compare the Descriptions given by both these Authors, which they had only from the Mouth of her Keeper, will see how they differ, and consequently what Untruths proceed from Hearsay; now after all these Things, our Author makes this Conclusion of his own Accord:

‘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.

Dr DOUGLAS.

The Explanation of the Figures in the following large Plate, which this most consummate Anatomist has favoured me with, are sufficient to shew, that these Sort of Subjects are, in his Opinion, Females in all Respects. The first Figure he had delineated from the Angolan in a most accurate Manner; and the other two were done some time ago, as appears by his Explanation; of both which he had given Copies to the ingenious Mr Cheselden, which he has in his Book of Anatomy.

In making these Figures, the Doctor, according to his accustomed Accuracy, avoids the Omission which De Graaf is guilty of; for though the latter’s Dissection and Description of the Subject that came before him are very satisfactory, in proving it Female, yet inasmuch as he has not shewed any Part of the Orificium Vaginæ in his Figure, it is not so much to the Purpose as those of Dr Douglas.

This Woman was carried from Angola in Africa, amongst other Slaves, to America, from whence she was brought to Bristol. She is about six and twenty Years old, has no Beard on her Chin, nor any Thing masculine in her Countenance; her Arms above the Elbow are thick and fleshy, as many Womens are, but soft; her Breasts are small, her Voice effeminate in the common Tone of speaking, and it was reported she has often been lain with by Men; and as to the Parts of Generation, they are so justly described in the following Explanation, that the Reader is referred to that.

FIG. I.

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 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.