Chap. I.Reasons against the Existence of an Hermaphrodital Nature in human Bodies.
Reasons against the Existence of an Hermaphrodital Nature in human Bodies.
An Hermaphrodite is an Animal, in which the two Sexes, Male and Female, ought to appear to be each distinct and perfect, as well with regard to the Structure proper to either, as to the Powerof exercising the necessary Offices and Functions of those Parts. This Definition naturally arises from the very Term, and therefore, whatsoever is so accounted, and fails of answering these Characters in the most minute Particular, should be consider’d in another light, and indeed call’d by some other Name.
It would be an Injury to Truth to deny the Existence of an Hermaphrodital Nature, to all the animal World in general; but however, I am inclin’d to believe it is only proper to some Reptiles, and but a few of these; for among the several Tribes of larger Animals, whether of the Air, Earth, or Waters, there seldom are any, of late Years, to whom this double Nature is ascribed, but those of the Human; with how little Truth or Reason, even to these, I hope to make appear hereafter.
Whatever the Necessity might be for the Creation of certain of the Reptiles of this Nature, such as the Garden shell’dSnail, and the large Earth-worm, both of which are certainly so, which I can affirm from my own Knowledge, having often drawn both these asunder when in Coition, and observ’d them; as well as from so good Testimony, as MrBradleyin his Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature[26], where he has several curious Observations on these Animals, and a Figure of the Parts of Generation of a Snail, done as they appeared in a Microscope. As also from a Book intitled,Spectacle de la Nature, which is no less to be regarded than the former, both for Truth and Accuracy. I say, whatever may be the Cause of this, there does not appear in Reason the least occasion for it in larger Animals. As to the former, if we may attempt to guess at a Reason for their being thus created, it may perhaps not be amiss to surmise as follows,viz.We know these are very slow Creatures in their Motions, and consequentlytheir Congress is the more seldom; and besides they are subject to so many destroying Accidents, that if the female Properties were but in one, it would hardly be sufficient to preserve their Species; hence it is that at the same Access they both beget, and bear in a reciprocal Manner. However, one Observation worthy of note is, that though they have a Capacity of both ways of engendering, it must be remark’d, that it is at the same Instant both are executed, and not successively or by Choice, being incapable of neglecting either to chuse the other. Besides, we find they are all so, through their whole Class; which to them is the same strict Law of Nature, that it is to other Animals to possess but a single Sex. Nor can this Law be ever violated in them, by any Means whatsoever, any more than that Law of Nature predominant in us should digress from what it always was, or be alter’d by any new Decree of the Divine Will, whose Decrees are already fix’d and unchangeable; our single Natures beingsufficient to preserve the human Race, in a successive Series, and their double one being no more; which alone was the Purpose of such Formations in all animal Beings, and no other. But no such Restraints attend larger Animals, and therefore no such Nature is at all necessary in them; however, tho’ all others are limited to certain Seasons, as to their generative Capacities, it is very strange that no Appearance has ever been had of two Sexes in any one upon Dissection, (though many have been supposed of a double Nature) but the human; who have no limits set to their Powers of procreating, and who on all accounts seem to have the least need of any thing of the Kind.
If it be objected that it happens not to human Nature through any Necessity, but only from a Lusus of Nature; I answer, that no such Lusus can happen, and it will be very evident, if we only reflect a little upon the Nature of Generation, which will be more amplytreated of in another Place; however, one Principle will be sufficient to our Purpose here, which is, that the Rudiments or Parts of all Animals whatsoever are already form’d in the Ovum[27], and that nothing can be produced by the Males, but a Juice capable of giving Motion, Explication, and Extension to those Parts, and that since we know the common Standard of Nature in human Bodies is, that there should be but one Sex in one Body, it is impossible that there should be the least Imperfection in the Rudiments of any one of the Ova, since they were implanted in Females from the Beginning of Time, by the AlmightyFiat, and were under the Restriction of that Law, that every Day’s Experience confirms to us is certain; for if there was not so absolute a Law, with respect to the being of only one Sex in one Body, we might then, indeed, expect to find every Day many preposterousDigressions from our present Standard. That there are certain Limits set to the Things of Generation appears no where better than when Animals of different Species meet and copulate; the Animal that is the Product of such a Congress is in no wise capable of producing an Off-spring like itself, to this there is an absolutene plus ultra, and why? Because, indeed, if such were capable of Generation, we should, by degrees, have a new set of Heterogenous Animals upon Earth. But it is plain, it never was the Design of the Almighty, since every Species of Animals are the same now that they ever were, and we must, from this Argument, expect no other while time subsists. And indeed, were we to have regard to the Notions of some of the Ancients concerning Generation, as, that the Male and Female Semina meeting form’d a Child of either Sex, according to the Predominance of the Strength or Quantity of either Semen, and if both were equal in Quantity and Quality, a Child of bothSexes was begotten, I say, were we to have regard to this, we might still be liable to be borne away by this Hypothesis, as Authors have been hitherto, which would inevitably seduce us to believe, that there are Hermaphrodites in human Nature. And therefore, whensoever the Parts of both Sexes are seen distinct in any Subject, they are not in the same, but in different Bodies preternaturally join’d, and coalesced together in the Uterus, by Compression, Heat, Inflammation, or some other such Accident; of this there lately was an Example in Town atCharing-Cross, which had the Heads separate, and the Sexes appearing considerable Distance from each other. But who, with the least Propriety, can call these an Hermaphrodite, each Body having it’s peculiar Sex, and being morbid in their Conjunction.
The Notions that sprung up in the World concerning this Matter were (no doubt) first taken from Appearances that sometimes have happen’d of an extraordinaryElongation in the Clitorides of Females; the first Idea conceiv’d from thence must have been that of a Penis, and the Appearance of a Vulva join’d to it raised an Opinion of both Sexes in the same Body; hence proceeded the Invention of a proper Name for the surprising Unity of both Sexes; and hence, the Fictions of Poets, which the Learned are well acquainted with. It will not be very difficult to account in some Measure, for the rise of such erroneous Imaginations, if we only consider how ignorant the World was in former Ages of the animal Structure, and even of those that understood ought of it, how few there were, who (from the Obscurity of the Clitoris in Females in a natural State) knew that any such Part existed: It is therefore not much to be wonder’d at, that at the first Sight of a large Clitoris, divers odd Conjectures should arise, and supply the Fancy of those unskill’d in a due Knowledge of the Part, with Matter sufficient for the Erection of new Doctrine.
An Opinion of any kind, when once on foot, is a Law to Posterity, till repealed by the Doubts and Scrutinies of the Learned and Curious. Doubt is the only Path to Truth; for by this we examine, search, and discern Truth from Error; natural History affords Examples enough of Falshoods copy’d and handed down from Age to Age, through the whole Class of Writers, who never doubted each other, and consequently were never able to know the Truth of Things, upon which many Volumes have been wrote; and it is matter of no small surprise, that Authors never were able to take the least hint from the Practice of the People of some of theAsiatick, as well as theAfricanNations, concerning these large Clitorides; for as in both these Parts of the World, the Women have them most commonly very long, and the People knowing that the Length of them produces two Evils,viz.the hindering the Coitus, and Womens abuse of them with each other, wiselycut or burn them off while Girls are young, and at the same time never entertain the least Notion of the Existence of any other Nature besides the Female in those Subjects who are thus depriv’d of that useless Part.
This Knowledge is not confin’d to Men of Science alone amongst theEgyptiansandEthiopians, nor indeed amongst theAsiaticks; for every Parent knows when the Child has this part longer than ordinary, and performs the Operation at a proper Time; which De Graaff seems very much to approve[28]: ‘And the Excision of this Part is as necessary as it is decent to those Eastern People.’—Which was also perform’d and taught, by several of the ancient Physicians[29], as particularly as any other Operation whatsoever; andyet even in our own Days, we find some Anatomists of Repute confessing a double Nature, and a Mixture of Sexes in the same Body, and others calling the Labia pudendi a divided Scrotum, and fancying Urine and Semen to pass thro’ the Clitoris. But it is observable, that where there is a perfect Penis and Scrotum found in a Child, there is never the least Sign of any Part proper to a Female annexed to it; but that, on the contrary, whatsoever Subject is said to be an Hermaphrodite has theFeminineParts in Perfection, and no Penis nor Scrotum, nor, according toDe Graaf’s Dissection, any Organ serving to their Nutrition, Action, Accretion, or any other Function, but only the Clitoris (common to all Women) somewhat larger than Ordinary, which will fully appear when we come to speak of him.
There are many Authors who have given Histories of Women that have been detected in the Abuse of such large Clitorides, calling them Τριβας, Confricatrices,and the like, the Recital of one fromTulpius[30]may not be amiss, who after relating some Passages transacted by one of these and a certain Widow, makes this Reflection, ‘Though the Clitoris for the most Part lies hid, yet several have it so large, that they are thought by the Ignorant to be transformed into Men; but that this (whose History he writes) was in all respects a perfect Woman, having only the Clitoris half a Finger’s Length.’ And since this worthy Author has given us this Story so suitable to our present Purpose, it will not be unseasonable in this Place, to take some Notice of a Memoirin the Transactions of theRoyal Society, presented by one DrThomas Allen[31], the Subject of which he calls an uncommon Lusus, and says, ‘This Hermaphrodite is not to be reckon’d amongst the Τριβαδες of theGreeks, nor to be equal’d by any Description yet extant.’ These Τριβαδες were no more than Women with Clitorides larger than ordinary. Such of them as are so may be capable, perhaps, of that Action from whence the Name arose, whether they perform it or not; and by considering the Sequel of this History, we shall find the Subject he describes to be no other than a very Woman, such asTulpiushas given the History of. He says, ‘at six Years of Age, the Child playing and wrestling with her fellow Children, there appeared two Tumours like Hernias, but they proved Testicles, differing from those of a Man only in this, that each had its own distinctScrotum; but in such a Manner, that the Production of both form’d the Labia of the Vulva.’
Our Author, after arming our Imaginations with an Expectation of something very extraordinary proceeds to describe a true Female Child, only he would allow her a Pair of Testes, but instantly owns the Scrota of these form’d the Labia. It would have been altogether as well to have said at once, the Labia were thicker than ordinary, for he could not positively say they were Testes without the Dissection of them, which was out of his Power, since we find him tracing her History to a more advanced Age. But further, he proceeds thus:
‘In the Sinus, or Fissura Magna, the Nymphæ and Carunculæ myrtiformes appear’d entire, and half the Vulva was cover’d with a thin Membrane from the Perinæum; and there was no Appearance of a Clitoris; the Uterusand its Neck were exactly like those of a Female.’
What has this Author described here, but a perfect Female? As to the Nymphæ’s being entire, they are never known to be otherwise, except a Dilaceration of them happens by some violence; the Carunculæ are indeed liable upon slight Occasions to be broken, however in so young a Subject it would be very strange to find them so, therefore there is nothing extraordinary in this Part of his Description; but if he should mean by the Wordentire, that these two Parts were conjoin’d together, his Notion of them seems somewhat imperfect, for the Nymphæ have their rise at the Clitoris, and are lost on each Side before they reach the Orifice of the Vagina; whereas the Carunculæ Myrtiformes are within the same, out of any Manner of Communication with the former. The thin Membrane[32]from the Perinæum thatcover’d half the Orificium Vaginæ is not an uncommon case; for in several this Skin runs over the whole Part, and therefore this, no more than any Part of the above Description, is to be counted proper to an Hermaphrodite. Again, there was no Appearance of a Clitoris, and the Uterus and its Neck were exactly like those of a Female. Though the Clitoris might have been then but small, yet that she had it is most certain, for in some they grow surprisingly in a little Time, and what our Author calls a Penis afterwards is nothing else; but how he could find out that the Uterus and Cervix were like others is a Riddle, since every Anatomist knows how remote these are from Sight in a living Subject.
At last he says, ‘she pass’d for a Woman till the thirteenth Year,——when kneading of Dough, all of a sudden, a Penis broke forth, four Inches long in an Erection, situated as in a Man, with a Glans and Præputium fasten’d to the Frænum, but the Glans beingimperforated——deny’d egress to the Semen, wherefore it made its way thro’ the Pudendum Muliebre, possibly in a refluent Manner.’
It is no wonder she should pass for a Woman, who, according to our Author, had all the Feminine Parts to such Perfection; and though the Accretion and Protrusion of the Clitoris was never so sudden, yet there is not the least Reason to ascribe to her a virile Nature, because the Female Parts remain’d as perfect as before, without the lead Metamorphosis, and she had her Menses regularly from her sixteenth during the two following Years, at which time, says our Author they ceased, and she began to have a Beard, Hair on her Body, Voice, Breasts, Thorax, Ischia, and many other things like those of a Man. However, this sudden Growth of the Clitoris is not to be credited, for those who shew a Child of this Nature will tell any Lye to render the Thing more surprising, as, for example, who by reading the Bill ofthe littleFrenchGirl, could imagine any other than that, in an erect Posture, she was only 16 Inches high? Whereas when her Limbs came to be view’d, the Spectators found themselves mistaken, for the Person never set forth in his Bill that she sat when she was measured, or that her Limbs were folded over each other. Hence it appears that the Narrations of these kind of Things are always false, and the Subjects never answer the Character or Description of them given by the Owners.
The Doctor here believes the Man’s Description of this Subject, and accordingly gives the Memoir to theRoyal Society; but the Owner makes a Change in his Story of the Girl when he carries her toUtrecht, where he shew’d her in 1668, at which time she was about one or two and twenty Years old, being born inFebruary1647, according to our Author, and in that Town she had her Menses regularly, which the Doctor says stopp’d at her eighteenth Year; but theVariation made in the History of her will farther appear, when we come to take notice ofDiemerbroeckwho saw her at that Town inHolland, and gives a History of her in his Book of Anatomy.
The Doctor calls the Extremities of the Nymphæ a Frænum, which he says fasten’d the Glans and Præputium; for in all Females of this kind, the Nymphæ arise in an acute Angle on the under side of the End of the Clitoris, which will appear in our Description hereafter, but owns ‘the Glans was imperforated, wherefore the Semen made its way through the Pudendum Muliebre;’ it would have been better and more judicious, not to have said a Word of the Semen’s being deny’d a Passage thro’ the Glans, and so going back in a refluent Manner the other Way, except he had a Mind to demonstrate by what Road it had such a refluent Passage. The inconsistencies that appear thro’ this whole Narration from first to last, should promise no great Credit, for it is entirely taken from theOwner of the Girl, and securely presented to theRoyal Society, without the Author’s considering that no one Part of his History can be reconciled to the known Laws of the Structure of the human Body. I should not omit in fine, to take notice of one Word more, ‘That at the Sight of a Woman her Penis was erected, and became flacid at the Sight of a Man;’ from this I can conceive no other, than that she had more desire to the Woman than the Man; and yet a little after he says, she cast her Eyes upon a handsome Man and fell in Love with him. But as I have said above,Diemerbroeckwill in his turn illustrate more particularly how little credit ought to be given to the Tales of Shew-men, by the Learned.
It has been often argued by Authors, that these Confricatrices are more inclined to desire the Access of Women than of Men, and being willing to favour the Opinion of both Sexes being found in one Person, draw from thatArgument this Conclusion, that therefore there must be as much of a Masculine nature, as of a Female in them. To this it is answer’d: That they do not desire Women more than Men, from a mere natural Inclination, but because by a Gratification of this Nature there is not so much danger of being expos’d; therefore a Congress like this is the more eagerly sought after, and agreed on by two Females so inclin’d, since by an over long Clitoris in one, both find their accounts answer’d, without fear of that Accident, that is the necessary Consequence of dealing with Men; for that Part being, as all allow, the Seat of great Titulation, it is no wonder it should be stimulated by being embraced in the Vagina, nor that the Receiver should also be effected by such Frication, as well as by a Penis Virilis; thus I hope it appears plainly that this Conclusion is ill grounded.
Another Argument made use of is: that those reputed Hermaphrodites haveBeards like Men and Hair on some of their Breasts. This can make but very little towards proving a Masculine Nature in them; for supposing some of these Fricatrices to have Hair&c.as above, yet there are many Women with Hair between their Breasts and on their Chins, who deserve no such Repute; one I have often seen whose Arms to the Fingers Ends were covered with long black Hair, having a Beard also on her Chin, who was the Wife of a Man of Fortune by whom she had eight or nine Children. I have also, at theHôtel de DieuatParis, seen a Body open’d that was hairy in the same Manner, without any Sign of a Masculine Nature whatsoever. Again, several Women advanced in Years have great Quantities of Hair on the Chin, but the Number of these as well as the former, among Women, are but few; and those that are so ought no more to have any such Character ascribed to them, on that account, than that many Men who want Beards should be said to partake of a Feminine Nature, and want the Powerof exercising the Functions of a Man; but daily Experience shews us these are as prolifick, and produce as many Signs of Virility, as any others whatsoever.
There have been many Reports of Persons who, in a certain Process of Time, have been said to change their Sex; and many[33]Authors have handed such Accounts with great Confidence to the rest of Mankind, which, like a Contagion, has infected them into a Belief of the Matter; a brief View of the Source of such Rumours may be of Use here, to shew how credulous some have been in receiving Stories of strange Things, and how indolent and supine in finding out the Truth of such.
1. The First Origin or Reason of this Notion then appears in the Account of DrAllen’s Hermaphrodite,viz.that the Girl was changed into a young Man; which is so clearly laid down already in his Story, that here needs no Repetition.
2. The Second appears to be taken from actual Male Children, who were sometimes mistaken for Females at their Birth, only from the Penis’s being as it were shrunk into a Chink, and the Testes also not yet fallen into the Scrotum, which remaining so for some time till (a proper Sense of the Sex beginning to dawn in them) the Parts begin to swell, and be protruded and extended towards a natural Size. Thus several Children have been, through Ignorance, baptized, habited, and reputed Maidens; and, upon the aforesaid Protrusion of the Parts, said to change their Sex and be transformed into Men; which many Writers have taken Pains to maintain.
Of this Nature, was one seen byCasp. Bauh.[34], andFæl. Plat, who was calledAnne, about 23 Years old, and was hir’d as a Maid Servant to a Countryman; The Master observ’d, that this Servant, upon some Occasions, was in greater favour with his Wife, than himself; and therefore brought the Affair before a Magistrate, who committed the Examination of the Person to these two Physicians, the former of whom gives the following Account of the Matter[35]:
‘He was tall and thin, having a Masculine Voice, a long Head of Hair, and only some softish Hairs on his Chin, (for he us’d to pluck his Beard with a Tweezer as fast it grew) he had no Breasts, but was hairy about the Pubis, and had a long Penis, and the Præputium drawn back and well worn; he had no Scrotum nor Testes that were visible: Under the Penis, in the Perinæum, where Lithotomy is commonly perform’d, there was a kind of Chink, about half a Finger’s Joint deep,&c.from all which we judg’d him a Man rather than a Woman. Being ask’d concerning his venereal Performances, he confess’d, that he had cohabitedwith several Whores, with a seminal Ejection and much Pleasure; and further, that whenever he had to do with any, or ever had an Erection of his Penis, a Testicle swell’d in his Right-Groin, (for sometimes the Testes do not descend into the Scrotum, but remain in the Inguina) which we perceiv’d by touching, but that on the left Side, nothing was to be perceiv’d neither during the Coitus nor otherwise; nor did any thing ever flow from the aforesaid Rima or Chink.’
Here was therefore a perfect Man, mistaken for a Female Child at the Birth, on account of the invisibility of the Testes, and the Appearance of that superficial Chink in the Perinæum[36].
3. A Third Reason for such Reports has been taken from Boys having been concealed in Female Dresses, for some political or family Occasions, and socontinu’d under that Acceptation, till either Matters came to such a Crisis as render’d their Case less dangerous, or till Beards and other Signs of Virility have occasion’d a Declaration of their true Sex, and a Change of Habit. The Vulgar now make a Rumour of a miraculous Change in Children, whom they before accepted of as Females; the Report takes wing, and is catch’d by several who commit the Story superstitiously to Posterity, without any Manner of Enquiry into the Nature of the Thing.
A Case of this Nature is cited byDiemerbroeck, which happen’d in the Time ofFerdinandI, King ofNaples; it was of two Children, who were call’dCarolaandFrancisca, and were reported to have changed their Sexes upon the Appearance of Beards growing on them, which their Mother gave out was miraculously done, upon which she changed their Habits for those of Men. The Story reachedFulgosus’s Ears, and he wrote it confidently and securely, and yet ourAuthorDiemerbroeckdiscredits it very much, since the Rumour proceeded from the Mother and no other Witness, with whom the rational Part of the World must concur.
Johan. Bauhin.furnishesSkenckius[37]with a History of a young Man, who was thought to be a Girl, by all his Acquaintance; because he sat in the Manner of Women to make Water, which was occasion’d by the Glans Penis’s being imperforated, and having a Passage for Urine under the Penis; he lay with Women and was dress’d and employ’d as one all his Life; and dying of a Pestilential Disease, was, by order of a Magistrate, open’d, and found to be a perfect Man in all respects, without any Part proper to the other Sex in the least.
In all probability, if he had been detected, when alive, he would have pretendeda miraculous Change of Sex as did the Mother of the aboveCarolaandFrancisca.
There[38]was an Opinion amongst theGreekandArabianPhysicians, concerning a great Analogy between the Male and Female Genitals as to their Structure, who strenuously assert, that these differ in nothing but their Situation, that is, they compare the Cervix and Vagina Uteri to the Penis, and the Fundus to the Scrotum, only they are inverted or rather not protruded, and that which hinders their Protrusion in Women, according to these Authors, is the want of Heat and sufficient force of Nature. It would be a Digression from our present Purpose, if we should enter upon a comparative View of the Parts of Generationof both Sexes, and endeavour to confute those Chimeras, and therefore the Use that is at present necessary to be made of this Opinion, is only to shew that this was another Origin from whence these Reports of such Metamorphoses have sprung and been encouraged, as well as any of those others already taken notice of. For admitting that Hypothesis,viz.that every Woman is a Man, if she had but heat of Temperament and Strength sufficient to drive the inside of the Uterus,&c.outward, and that that Inversion should form a Penis and Scrotum, which was the general Notion amongst some of the Learned a long time afterGalen; I say, admitting this was now the reigning Notion, we should upon the least Appearance of any thing strange in the Parts of Generation, be as ready still to acquiesce to any Rumour of the Change of Sex,&c.as ever, having so easy a Manner of accounting for it, as theCalor eximius & Naturæ Vis, which was the fashionable Cause to which Changes of this Nature were alwaysascribed, both by theGreeksandArabians.
It will not be improper here to observe, that all these Changes in the Sex were most commonly said to be made from Women to Men; and I never could hear any Account whatsoever of Mens being chang’d into Women, but two or three, one of which happened here inLondon; the Story will not only be of use to our Purpose, but a merry one, and therefore take it briefly as follows: At a great Tavern inLondon[39], there lived, some few Years ago, two Drawers who were a considerable Time Servants in the House, and always lay together; one of them gets the other with Child, who was with a great deal of Shame and Confusion turn’d away, and oblig’d then to put on Womens Clothes. The Rumour of the Drawer’sbeing chang’d into a Woman made a great Noise all over the Neighbourhood, and very likely would have been recorded for Truth, if it had happen’d in an Age little earlier.
Here was a poor Girl whose Parents ignorantly believing she was a Boy from the Length of the Clitoris, dress’d her up, and employ’d her as such in the Business of Life; she no doubt believ’d herself so, until she was better instructed by her Fellow-Servant; and here is Matter and Foundation, altogether as probable and sufficient for Poets or Historians to build upon, as any heretofore taken notice of; and, in fine, hence it plainly appears, that it is with equal right, that human Nature may be said to be capable of admitting of two Natures Male and Female, in one Body, and of changing from one Sex to the other.
Another is told by[40]Caspar Bauhin. of a Child who was baptized as a Male, and was brought up a Taylor by Trade, went afterwards into the Army, and serv’d as a Soldier both inHungaryandFlanders, marry’d a Wife, and liv’d seven Years with her, at the End of which, our Soldier one Night rose from the Wife, complaining of great pains in the Belly, and in half an Hour, was delivered of a Daughter. When the Story came before the Magistrates, an Examination was made, and the poor Female Soldier confess’d herself of both Sexes, and that aSpaniardhad cohabited with her once (only) inFlanders, by which she proved with Child; that the Wife had concealed her want of what might be expected from a Husband, with whom she never was able to act in any wise, during their (seven Years) living together.
The Author introduces this Story in the following Words[41]. ‘As the following History is of no small Importance in explaining the Nature of Hermaphrodites, I have translated it thus from theGermanLanguage.’ From which Words it appears, that he had a very just Notion concerning them, and was so far from making such things Prodigies, being well versed in the Knowledge of the Animal Structure, that he counts the History of this, and another Soldier whomKeckermannusgives an account of, sufficiently explicatory of the Nature of Hermaphrodites in general.
The Parents of these could have no other Motive for thinking these Creatures Boys, than the Length of the Clitoris; which is plain from their bearing Childrenwhen they came to Age; and if any thing of a Masculine Nature was in the Soldier, it could surely in seven Years Acquaintance have been exerted to the Gratification of a Wife, or would have produced some other Effects very different from that of being got with Child.