Hermaphroditism.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hermaphroditism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    genital organs, there existed on the left side a very distinct ovary, a round ligament which ran outwards to the groin of the same side, and a well-formed Fallopian tube with its usual fimbriated extremity. The other extre- mity of the Fallopian tube terminated in the fundus of the uterus, which occupied its usual situation between the bladder and rectum. On the right side, again, there was a slender elongated testicle, which had moved forwards to the corresponding inguinal canal, but had not proceeded so far as to pass out of the ab- dominal cavity. On the superior part of the testicle was a body resembling the epididymis, and the testicle itself sent off two tubes, which afterwards united into one immediately before their insertion into the uterus. The external genital organs were those of a hypospadic male, and during life the person had been always looked upon as belonging to the male sex. The peri nasal canal or vagina terminated,between the scrotum and root of the imperforate penis, in a very small opening, which was common to it and to the meatus urinarius. b. In 1754,* a young person of about eighteen years of age died in the Hotel Dieu of Paris; and in dissecting his body, the anatomist, Varole, found the reproductive organs malformed in the following manner. On the right side the scrotum contained a testicle, and the vas defe- rens arising from it opened, not as usual into the neck, but into the middle of the external border of the corresponding vesicula seminalis. On the left side the scrotum was empty ; and internally on this side there were found an ovary, a Fallopian tube with its fimbriated ex- tremity, a small oval uterus without a neck and somewhat flattened, and a broad and round ligament, the last of which ran outwards, and was lost in the cellular tissue of the left half of the scrotum. The vesicula seminalis on the right, and the imperfect uterus on the left side, communicated by a canal of an inch and a half in length. The external organs were male; but the penis was very small, had no corpus spongi- osum, and was imperforate for half an inch at its anterior extremity. The mammae were as large as in women of the same age. The indi- vidual had been regarded during life as a male. c. In 1825 the late Professor Rudolphif de- tailed to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin the case of an infant who was reported to have died seven days after birth, and whose sexual organs exhibited the following interesting in- stance of lateral hermaphroditic conformation. Meckel (Reil’s Archiv. Bd. xi. s. 322,) considers Morand’s and Lecat’s as two different cases, and points out that what is described as the male side in the one, was the female in the other, and vice versa. It is, perhaps, not unworthy of remark, that in the coloured plate accompanying the translation of Morand’s case by Gautier, the male and female sides have been reversed from an error in the en- graving ; and this circumstance may have contribu- ted to mislead Lecat in his description, provided he happened to look to this notice of the case. * Mem. de la Soc. Med. de Paris, tom. iv. p. 342. f Abhandlnng. Konig. Akad. derWissenschaft. zu Berlin fur 1825, s. 60. On the left side were discovered an ovary (fig. 291, a), without a distinct broad ligament, Fig. 291. Uterus (c) turned downwards and forwards to show its posterior surface and connections, tyc. and a Fallopian tube (b), which communi- cated with the superior and left portion of an uterus (c). The left side of the scrotum (fig. 292, Fig. 292. a), was empty; the right (6) contained a testicle (fig.291 ,d) furnished with an epididymis (e) and tor- tuous vas deferens (./’). Below the uterus there was a hard flattened ovoid body (fig. 291, g, and fig. 293, b), which, when divided was found to consist of a cavity with thick parietes, and was considered by Rudolphi External organs. as the prostate gland in a rudimentary state. The mouth of the uterus (fig. 293, a) terminated be- low in the parietes of this ovoid body, and on the right the vas deferens (d) penetrated into its sub- stance, but without open- ing into its cavity. At the inferior part of the uterus there was a true vagina (fig. 293, c), which termi- nated in a cul-de-sac. The anus, rectum, and other organs were natural. The external sexual parts were male, but the penis was divided inferiorly (fig. 292, c). The testicle and ovary were sup- plied with the two usual spermatic arteries (fig. 291, A h). d. Under the present section of lateral herma- phroditism, we may also, according to Mayer’s report, include the celebrated case of Marie Derrier, or Charles Doerge.* This person was baptised and brought up as a female, but at forty years of age was persuaded to change his name and dress to those of a man. We have already alluded to the great diversity of opinion which was entertained by the medical men of * GazetteMed.de Paris (1836), no. 39. Lancet, v. i. for 1836-7, p. 140; or London Medical Ga- zette for October 29, 1836. Fig. 293. Os uteri, vagina, prostate, and vas deferens.