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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    rudimentary testicle or ovary conjoined with an imperfect Wolffian body, or really a true in- stance of the presence of both testicles and ovaries upon the body of the same individual. PHYSIOLOGICAL DEGREE OF SEXUAL PERFEC- TION IN HERMAPHRODITES. Among those lower tribes of animals, such as the Abranchial Annelida, Pteropoda, &c. that are naturally hermaphrodite, every individual is in itself a perfect representation of the species to which it belongs. In the higher orders, however, in which the distinction and separa- tion of the sexes comes to be marked, each in- dividual being either solely male or solely female, can, as has often been remarked, be re- garded only as representing one-half of its entire species. In most instances of hermaph- roditism among these more perfect animals, the malformed being does not even attain to this degree of perfection, but is in general so defec- tively constituted as not to have the proper physiological characters and attributes of either sex. In cases of spurious hermaphroditism it would appear that sometimes, though the co- pulative or external sexual parts are greatly and variously malformed, the internal or proper re- productive organs are developed with sufficient perfection to enable them to perform the func- tions belonging to them. We have very little proof, however, that in any instances of what we have described as true hermaphroditism, the apparatus of either sex is even formed with such anatomical perfection as to empower the malformed being to bear a successful part in the reproductive function. Indeed in all, or in almost all cases belonging to this last order of hermaphroditism, the individual who is the subject of the malformation may, with much more than poetical truth, be described both anatomically and physiologically, as, in the words of Ovid, Concretus sexu, sed non perfectus utroque, Arabiguo venere, neutro potiundus amore. There is on record one remarkable instance of apparent exception to this general observa- tion, a notice of which we have reserved for this place on account of the want of any such precise knowledge of the true anatomical pecu- liarities of the case as might enable us to refer it to the section which it ought to occupy in our classification. The case to which we allude was described by Dr. Hendy of New York, in a letter dated from Lisbon in 1807, and the subject of it was a Portuguese, twenty- eight years old, of a tall and slender but mas- culine figure.* “ The penis and testicles,” to adopt the words of Dr. Hendy’s own narrative, “ with their common covering the scrotum, are in the usual situation, of the form and appear- ance, and very nearly of the size of those of an adult. The prseputium covers the glans com- pletely, and admits of being partially retracted. On the introduction of a probe, the male ure- thra appeared to be pervious about a third of its length, beyond which the resistance to its passage was insuperable by any ordinary justi- * New York Medical Repository, vol. xii. p. 86. fiable force. There is a tendency to the growth of a beard, which is kept short by clipping with scissors. The female parts do notdifferfrom those of the more perfect sex, except in the size of the labia, which are not so prominent, and also that the whole of the external organs ap- pear to be situated nearer the rectum, and are not surrounded with the usual quantity of hair. The thighs do not possess the tapering fulness common to the exquisitely formed female ; the ossa ilii are less expanded, and the breasts are very small. In voice and manners the female predominates. She menstruates regularly, was twice pregnant, and miscarried in the third and fifth months of gestation. During copulation the penis becomes erect. There has never ex- isted an inclination for commerce with the female under any circumstances of excitement of the venereal passion.” In the preceding case, (if we may confidently trust to the account given of it,) we have ample proof of the exist- ence of the internal female sexual organs in the circumstances of menstruation and impregna- tion taking place ; and at the same time there appears considerable evidence for believing that some of the male organs were present. For even if we were to argue that the bodies present in the scrotum or united labia might be ovaries and not testicles, and that the supposed semi-perforate penis was only an enlarged cli- toris, still the masculine figure of the individual, the imperfect beard, the narrowness of the pelvis, and the form of the lower extremities would tend to indicate the probable existence of the rudiments of some male organs; and if we go so far as to admit this, we must further allow the present to be an instance of hermaph- roditism, in which one of the sets of sexual organs was capable of assuming their appro- priate physiological part in the process of re- production, though perhaps unable, if we may judge from abortion having twice occurred, of ultimately perfecting that process. The preceding remarks upon the functional reproductive powers of reputed true hermaph- rodites have been meant to apply only to the supposed perfection of one order of their sexual organs. It becomes a still more interesting question whether it ever occurs that in any ab- normal hermaphrodite among the more perfect tribes of animals, both kinds of sexual parts may be found in so perfectly developed a state as to enable the individual to complete the sexual act within its own body; or, in other words, to impregnate and be impregnated by itself. Though we have assuredly no positive proof to furnish * that a hermaphrodite so phy- siologically perfect has ever yet been observed, and should very strongly doubt its occurrence * We do not certainly feel entitled to place among the category of correct observations either the alleged case given by Linneus (Mangetus’ Bib- liotheca Chirurg. lib. iv.) of a sow with perfect male organs on one side, and a womb containing several foetuses on the opposite ; or that mentioned by Faber (Hernandez* Nov. Plant. Anim. Mexic. Histor. p. 547) and quoted by Haller and Rudolphi, of the co-existence, in a rat, of ovaries and a uterus with nine foetuses, along with complete male organs.