Part 5

‘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.

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 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 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, 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 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. ‘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, who accuses Nature of being hindered, or of forgetting its duty in the Formation of the Fœtus, and by this Mistake Hermaphrodites are generated.

‘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 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.

‘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 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.

‘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 Author, thus Avicenna:

‘And some of them say, who speak without Reason, &c.’