Tractus de Hermaphrodites

Tractus de Hermaphrodites

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tractus de Hermaphrodites, by Giles Jacob This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Tractus de Hermaphrodites
Author: Giles Jacob
Release Date: October 1, 2004 [EBook #13569]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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=Tractatus de Hermaphroditis:=
=OR, A=
=TREATISE=
=OF=
=HERMAPHRODITES,=
=CONTAINING=
I. A Description of the several Sorts of HERMAPHRODITES, and how the Law regards them in respect to Matrimony.
II. Intrigues of HERMAPHRODITES and Masculine FEMALES, and of the outward Marks to distinguish them.
III. The material Cause and Generation of HERMAPHRODITES, of unnatural BIRTHS, Generation of MONSTERS, extraordinary CONCEPTIONS, &c.
=LONDON:=
=Printed for E. CURLL Fleet-street.=
=MDCCXVIII.=

PREFACE.
_Prefaces now a Days are rather Apologies for the Works to which they are prefix'd, than written for Instruction; and generally a ludicrous Scene is expected, if the Performance be of an airy Nature; or, if not, at least an introductory Specimen of what the Reader may hope for in the Body of the Work_.
_I shall make no Apology for my Subject, notwithstanding an impudent Libeller has endeavour'd to load Authors and Publishers of Works of this Nature with the utmost Infamy; and herein I admire at the Front of the Fellow, to pretend to Chastise others for Writing only, when he practises a great deal more Iniquity than any Book extant can prompt him to, every Day that comes over his Head_.
MY _Design in the following Sheets is meerly as an innocent Entertainment for all curious Persons, without any Views of inciting Masculine-Females to Amorous Tryals with their own Sex; and I am perswaded there will not be one single HERMAPHRODITE the more in the World, on account of the publishing this_ TREATISE.
IT _may be expected by some faithless Persons, that I should produce an HERMAPHRODITE to publick View, as an incontestible Justification of there being Humane Creatures of this kind; but as I have no Authority to take up the Petticoats of any Female without her Consent, I hope to be excus'd from making such demonstrable Proofs; and if I had such a Power, the Sight might endanger the Welfare of some pregnant Female, whose Curiosity would spur her to a particular Examination_.
The Intrigues of my HERMAPHRODITES _are indeed very amazing, and as monstrous as their Natures, but that many Lascivious Females divert themselves one with another at this time in this City, is not to be doubted: And if any Persons shall presume to Censure my Accounts, grounded on a Probability of Truth, I shall be sufficiently reveng'd in proclaiming them, what my HERMAPHRODITES are found to be in the Conclusion_--Old Women.
_I confess, all Histories of extraordinary Conceptions from these Intrigues, or by Women without actual Copulation, are equally fabulous with those of the Engendring of Men: It would be as surprizing to find a Man with a teeming Belly, as to see a Woman increase there meerly by her own Applications_.
I doubt not but this small TREATISE _may put some Persons upon a previous Examination of Robust Females, that they may be at a certainty with respect to mutual Enjoyment; but I would not have them rashly conclude from large Appurtenances only, that they are unnatural, but, on the contrary, agreeable Companions._
To conclude, I fear not the Censure of HERMAPHRODITES, _nor of those that would be such to satisfy their vicious Inclinations; neither am I under any apprehensions from the Censure of our Reforming Zealots_.

* * * * *
Tractatus de Hermaphroditis:
OR, A
TREATISE
OF
HERMAPHRODITES.
The Secrets of Nature have in all Ages been particularly examin'd by Anatomists and others, and this of Hermaphrodites is so very wonderful, that I am perfectly assur'd my present Enquiry will be entirely acceptable to all Lovers of curious Discoveries; and as it is my immediate Business to trace every Particular for an ample Dissertation on the Nature of Hermaphrodites, (which obliges me to a frequent Repetition of the Names of the Parts employ'd in the Business of Generation) so, I hope, I shall not be charg'd with Obscenity, since in all Treatises of this Kind it is impossible to finish any one Head compleatly, without pursuing the Methods of Anatomical Writings.
Though in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Salmacis's being in Love with Hermaphroditus, and not succeeding in her amorous Wishes, her praying to the Gods to join their Bodies in one, has no Weight in it; yet, that the Notions of Hermaphrodites are not entirely fictitious, I need only mention the Servant of Montuus, who took his Hermaphrodite to be a Male when he lay with his Maids, and for a Female when she lay with her Husband to