Account of a case of hermaphrodism / by P.D. Handyside.

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881.
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of hermaphrodism / by P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    culiarities of developement now described appear to me to con- sist almost entirely of deficiencies of male organization. Though I have, in compliance with the common language of authors, entitled the case one of Hermaphrodism, as this term has been commonly applied to instances of animals being brought forth whose organs of generation are preternaturally formed,—yet, in strict physiological propriety, this is a term which ought, I be- lieve, to he confined to that species of malformation of the organs of generation, in which there is really a mixture of male and female parts in equal or in different degrees. Under the impression, then, that such is the just and correct anatomico-physiological definition of an hermaphrodite, and that there is much reason to believe that no strict instance of such a condition of the generative organs,—a union of all the organs of both sexes in the same individual,—has ever occurred either in the more perfect animals, or in the human species, I would designate the foregoing case of Gottlich as one simply of Hypospadias, (or urethra forming but half a canal, and opening below the penis, or in the perinoEum,) which is only the first step towards true and real hermaphrodism. ]3ut a feature in which I believe this case of hypospadias, though in many particulars resembling others on record, to be perhaps unique, is in the manner in which the urethra opens on the upper surface of a wide canal; therein appearing to be strictly analogous to the mode of entrance of the membranous portion of the tirethra into the bulb. In conclusion, though such malformations of the parts of ge- neration in the male, which have been mistaken for a mixture of those of both sexes, are in a great number of cases beyond the reach of surgical art, it is otherwise in the present instance, where there exists a very minor degree of imperfection in the impregnating organs ; it being ascribable only to a deficiency in the urethra, and apparently to no other cause that Gottlich has proved himself to be incompetent to discharge the functions of his sex. Accordingly, the imperfection in the urethra might be materially diminished, if not altogether removed, by contract- ing the orifice of the wide canal in the perincBum, and by unit- ing the edges of the divided scrotum; thus continuing upwards the canal of the urethra to the gians penis itself The present case is one in which we might fairly anticipate success from such an operation. When it was formerly proposed, however, by Professor Langenbeck, Gottlich declined all surgical aid, and he is now still more averse to a proposal of this kind, since it would at once deprive him of his present easy and profitable mode of subsistence. March 1835. rRINTED IIY JOHN STAllh, OLD ASSEMBLY CLOSE.