A mechanical and critical enquiry into the nature of hermaphroditesParsons, James
History
A mechanical and critical enquiry into the nature of hermaphrodites
Parsons, James
Intersexuality -- Early works to 1800
Let us here observe, that this Author places the feminine Parts above the
Masculine, which he owns, and by his Figure appear, to be in their proper
Place. Now every Anatomist will with Reason admire at the Situation of
the _Rima Magna_ above the Os Pubis, because in order to have it so, the
Vagina must have a Way thro’ the Peritonæum, and the Fundus Uteri must
have a transverse Direction in a Right-line from the Labia Externa,
cutting the Body of the Child ’cross at Right-angles; this being the
case, it will be a difficult Matter to find a Place for the Vesica
Urinaria, from which the Urethra ought to pass thro’ the Penis, as that
appears by the Figure to be the most perfect. I confess the Singularity
of the Situation of the Female Parts above the Penis and Scrotum renders
me an Infidel to the Story, from the known impossibility of such a
Structure. So that if such a Subject was seen, I am inclin’d to believe,
that what he took for the Vulva, and would have us believe so, was no
more than some particular Mark or Rima in the Skin, such things being
not uncommon; and we need no more wonder at the Author’s being fond of
making it what he does, than at others, and not a few, who would turn the
Clitoris into a _Penis Virilis_, or whimsically turn Boys into Girls,
and Girls into Boys, and therefore as he does not say, whether himself
had seen it, or whether it was communicated to him, we must conjecture,
that when a thing is received by hear-say, it is an easy Matter to make
a Figure answerable to the Report, and place Parts of Bodies in the
Situation that best suits our Story[83]; we shall find this to be pretty
near the Case, when we come to take notice of _Ambrose Paræy_ underneath.
In the same Chapter this Author says, that many Children are born, and
even grow to considerable Ages, whose Sex is hardly upon Inspection to
be distinguish’d. The ignorant (says he) believe them to consist of
both, but are much mistaken; then he pretends to have seen one of these
doubtful Cases in these Words[84]:
‘I happen’d to see such an Infant, whose Sex was hard to be determined;
Testicles were indeed prominent without a Penis; under the Testicles
there was a Rupture or Passage for the Urine, but because of the want
of the Penis (nor was it totally absent, but turn’d inwards and bending
downwards to the said Rupture) Nature found this Way for the Exit of the
Urine. It was not baptized as a Female, nor an Androgynus, but a Male
only.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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