Such were the Motives and Considerations that prompted me to endeavour to wrest, from the Jaws of Scandal and Reproach, poor human Nature, which has, from Time to Time, suffered great Disgrace, and many of whose innocent Children have been punished, and even put to Death, for having been reputed Hermaphrodites; Ignorance of the Fabrick of the Body has been the first great Occasion of those Evils, destroying Evils, which exist not only amongst the most ignorant _Americans_, but also amongst the Litterati themselves in other Parts of the World. What, but Ignorance or Superstition, could perswade Men to imagine, that poor human Creatures (which were only distorted in some particular Part, or had any thing unusual appearing about them, from some morbid Cause affecting them, either in the Uterus, or after their Births) were Prodigies or Monsters in Nature? What, but Ignorance and Superstition, could urge Men to make Laws for their Destruction or Exclusion from the common Benefits of Life? in fine, what, but these very Causes, could make several harsh Laws continue still in Force against them in many Places, which suppose those Women that happen to be _Macroclitorideæ_, to be capable of exercising the Functions of either Sex, with regard to Generation; and, further, restrain them under severe Penalties to stick to that Sex only which they should choose? as if poor Women could exercise the Part of any other Sex but their own. The _Romans_, soon after the Foundation of their City, had Laws made against their _Androgyni_ remarkably severe; for whensoever a Child was reputed one of these, his Sentence was to be shut up in a Chest alive, and thrown into the Sea[12], which was as often put in Execution as any of these unfortunate Children were discovered. The Inhabitants about the Gulph of _Florida_[13] hold them also in great Contempt, believing them to be something so evil as not to deserve the Comforts of Life; and though they do not destroy them yet they deal as badly by them, for when they go to make War, as many of these supposed Hermaphrodites as can be found are obliged to carry their Provisions; they are also compelled to bear the Dead, and those sick of malignant Diseases, to proper Places, and attend them under very rigorous Circumstances.