Tractus de Hermaphrodites | Page 3

once appear an Hermaphrodite.
The fourth Sort of Hermaphrodites, are Women who have the Clitoris bigger and longer
than others, and thereby impose upon the Vulgar, who know but little of the Parts they
are compos'd of, and of these kinds of Hermaphrodites, Columbus says he examin'd 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