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
‘Hermaphrodites belong to the Urethra and Scrotum, if the Testicles
should be hid in the Peritonæum, and the Scrotum empty; or opened in the
middle from a Perforation in the Urethra; when the Sides of the Scrotum
are like the Labia of the Pudenda of Women, and the Penis also very
little; these Things have deceived ignorant Midwives, who often think
such Children females at their Birth.’
Now it is plain, that tho’ he brings these Accidents and Diseases under
that Denomination, which (as he was Professor) must have been only by way
of School-Method, yet his Conclusion of this Paragraph shews that his
Opinion was, that the Testes remaining hid in the Peritonæum, and the
Scrotum empty with an Aperture in the middle, the Penis being extreamly
small, were all Accidents that happened to the Male Sex, though judged
to be Females by the Ignorance of Midwives, at the Time of their Birth;
and, indeed, though the Testes may be not as yet come down, nothing can
be conceived of such a Subject but the true Male Sex; but if the Sides of
the Scrotum look like Labia, it must be a female Case with a prominent
Clitoris, for it is absurd to think the Scrotum can be divided, as we
have proved above. Again, this Author, after taking notice of some other
Diseases of the Urethra of Males, and their Scrota, utterly denies that
Females can be changed into the other Sex, but that Children reputed
Females from some of the forementioned Disorders, have always proved to
be Males in the End[107].
‘Such Subjects, after being thought Females, have at length proved Males,
for no Woman was ever changed to a Man; but might be misjudged by the
Length of the Clitoris, or an Hypersarcosis, arising from the Uterus,
which might be in some Measure like a Penis in Form and Hardness, but not
at all in the Composition or Structure, _&c._’
In this Paragraph he is very particular upon the Reports of a Change of
Sex, and adds, to the two former, these two other Ways of the Vulgar’s
being deceived with respect to such Changes; as if he had said, ‘I know
of no other way for changing a Woman into a Man, except you’ll have it
that a long Clitoris, or an Hypersarchosis, growing out of the Vagina
makes a Man.’—This he confirms again in his thirty-sixth Chapter of the
same Book under his Medical Considerations on the feminine Parts of
Generation, under the Head of _Morbi Peculiares_, where when he comes to
the Clitoris he says[108]:
‘The Clitoris sometimes grows inordinately long, and counterfeits a
Penis; it is called a Tail with which Women abuse one another; these are
called Hermaphrodites, or Fricatrices, nor was it ever known, and it is
impossible, that a Woman should be transformed into a Man. But a Male
Child at it’s Birth being thought a Female, as was said before, when his
Parts begin to come out which lay hid, may, indeed, become a Man.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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