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

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    or any other organ. No menstrual discharge, or any symp¬ toms indicating the natural efforts to perform that function, have ever occurred. At the period when the testes descended, how¬ ever, Gottlich experienced repeated attacks of haemoptysis. The urinary passage is separated from the perinceum by a semilunar fold of skin (resembling the furca virginis) which serves to direct forward the stream of urine ; and its inferior border is at the distance of two inches from the anus, but con¬ nected to it by means of the usual cutaneous elevation,—the raphe perincei. The testicles, which are about the common size, though ra¬ ther softer than natural, are, with their vessels, unequivocally present. They are pendulous in the halves of the scrotum, and placed at an inch distance on either side of the raphe, al¬ ready alluded to as occupying the situation of the septum scroti. From the meatus urinarius to the glans penis, the mem¬ brane on each side of the raphe appears in some particulars to resemble the portion of the natural urethra anterior to the bulb. It is thin and delicate, and highly vascular ; and there are ob¬ servable on its surface, near the glans, three minute lacunas, pro¬ bably the orifices of Cowper’s glands, from which a mucous dis¬ charge is poured out; as well as two larger valvular openings (capable of admitting fine bristles to the depth of an inch,) which are the terminations of the vasa deferentia, and are placed immediately below the former apertures, and at the dis¬ tance of about four or five lines on each side of the elevated line, which corresponds to the raphe and caput gallinaginis of the urethra. The seminal fluid which, in the act of coition, or in noctur¬ nal emissions, is discharged from the openings of the vasa defe¬ rential has been submitted to the microscope, and found to pre¬ sent the usual characters. In the last place, with regard to the sexual desires manifested by this individual, these are moderately strong. He has had frequently connexion with the male, from the age of fifteen years to the present period, and, indeed, up to the time when the testicles descended, he felt no inclination for connexion with the female. He has, however, since that period experienced this desire, and gratified it while at Hamburgh two years ago. The circumstance, that lie cannot perfectly perform the functions of a man, may serve to explain how lie has not much passion for women, and how his amative desires are still directed towards his own sex. In addition to the detail of facts to which in this communi¬ cation I have confined myself, I would observe, that the pe-