Tractus de Hermaphrodites | Page 3

all the Parts, and found no essential Difference from other Women; the only Sign that they are Women is, that they suffer the flowing of their Terms every Month.
The fifth Kind, are those that have neither the Use of the one nor the other Sex, and have their privy Parts confus'd, and the Temper of Man and Woman so inter-mix'd, that one can hardly say which is most predominant; but these sorts of Persons are rather a kind of Eunuchs than Hermaphrodites, their Penis being good for nothing, and their Terms never flowing. Of this Kind was the Bohemian Woman, that pray'd Columbus to cut off her Penis, and to enlarge her Vagina, that she might the more freely, as she alledg'd, join amorously with a Man.
These are the several Sorts of Hermaphrodites, mentioned by Monsieur Venette; and the four first of them, tho' they have the Name, yet Nature has not refus'd them the Advantage to make use of their Genital Parts, and to Engender as others. The Male Hermaphrodite may get Children, and the Female conceive; so that neither the one nor the other differ from Men or Women, but only by a superfluity or a deficiency of Parts, and such as does not disturb the business of Generation.
The fifth Sort are call'd perfect Hermaphrodites, because they are incapable of using either of the Sexes; but some Persons fancy there are a sort of Hermaphrodites which can make use of both Sexes, and Engender both ways, though this is easily confuted, when we consider that one of the privy Parts of an Hermaphrodite is generally useless, as being contrary to the Laws of Nature, and what confusion would it be, to find in one and the same Person a Man's and Woman's Testicles, a Womb and a Penis? A Woman's Genital Parts and a Man's are too different to admit of such an Union, and to change the Use upon any occasion.
Agreeable to the list mention'd Opinion, some Naturalists will have it, that an Hermaphrodite, which is very vigorous as to both Sexes, may Engender within himself, without the Company of another Person, having Matter to form a Child, a Place to conceive it, and proper Liquid for Nourishment: In the same manner as Jack Hares engender once in their Lives, and that Stags do the same, which is maintain'd by the learned Langius: But these Generations are both impossible and ridiculous, the Naturalists must certainly be deceiv'd, in taking some Parts of the Female for the Testicles of the Male; and what probability is there that the Seed should come out of one Part and into the other, without losing its Spirits, and altering considerably in changing of Place? And if such a Thing were possible, the Temperament that engenders Masculine Seed might as well engender Feminine, and produce the Terms at the same Time or something else in proportion to it.
Women having Beards, and being a large Masculine Size, have been sometimes, by the Ignorant, accounted Men, tho' they were true Women; and it cannot be said, that one Sex is chang'd into another, for we never heard of Men that became Women, and that their, privy Parts were abolish'd; or turn'd within, in order to form the Genital Parts of a Woman. The Hermaphrodites of Licetus, which conceiv'd and brought forth Children, were real Women taken for Men, by reason of the length and bigness of their Clitoris: And the Fisherman's Wife, mention'd by Antonius de Palma, was only a Male, call'd the third sort of Hermaphrodites undiscover'd, which was afterwards manifested in the coming out of the Parts of a Man, when she had been fourteen Years married. The Case was the same with Emilia, marry'd to _Antonius Sperta, mention'd by Potanus_ who was accounted a Woman twelve Years, but was afterwards reputed a Man, and married again to a Woman.
For the Discovery of the Male and Female Hermaphrodite, these Observations will be serviceable: A Person that is bold and sprightly, having a strong Voice, much Hair on the Body, particularly on the Chin and privy Parts, with the rest of such Signs as discover Manhood, are certain Demonstrations that the Hermaphrodite has the privy Parts of a Man in a more predominant manner than those of the other Sex; and contrarywise, if an Hermaphrodite has good Breasts, Skin smooth and soft; if the Terms appear at their due Intervals; if there be a sparkling and agreeableness in the Eyes; and if other Signs are observ'd, that commonly distinguish a Woman from a Man, these are Arguments that the Hermaphrodite has the Privities of the Female Sex of a good Conformation; and if the Vagina is not too defective, such an Hermaphrodite ought to pass for a Woman.
I doubt not but there are many