The term Hermaphrodite^[471] signifies an animal in which there exists a mixture of the male and female organs, and which is therefore capable of begetting or conceiving. There can be no doubt but that some of the lower orders of animals^[472] are, in the strict sense of the term, Hermaphrodites; but it is now universally admitted that, in the human species, no such phenomenon ever existed; indeed, if we only consider the osteology of the pelvis, to the bones of which the organs of generation are connected, it is impossible to imagine how the complete parts of the male and female could be placed distinct from each other; nor is there upon record a single case which can be considered authentic;^[473] numerous are the instances of preternatural structure, which gives the appearance of a double sex, and it is on the nature of such monstrous productions, that the medical man is frequently called upon to decide. Baron Haller has industriously collected in one point of view, the histories of reputed hermaphrodites, from almost every author that has preceded him; and from this memoir,^[474] and the interesting paper by Sir E. Home, entitled “An account of the Dissection of an Hermaphrodite Dog, to which are prefixed some observations on Hermaphrodites in general,”^[475] we acknowledge ourselves principally indebted for the following remarks.

Sir E. Home considers that all the monstrous productions, hitherto noticed and described as Hermaphrodites, may be reduced to one of the four following classes, viz:

1. Malformations of the Male. 2. Malformations of the Female. 3. Males with such a deficiency in their organs, that they have not the character and general properties of the male, and may be called Neuters. 4. Where there exists a real mixture of the organs of both sexes, although not sufficiently complete to constitute double organs.

To illustrate the first case, we may refer to that of a negro described by Cheselden,^[476] who would appear to have possessed the organs of the male exclusively, only in a state of great distortion, owing to the imperfection of the scrotum, which was divided into two separate bags with a deep slit between them, resembling very much the labia pudendi, and the opening into the vagina; over these hung down the penis; the imperfection of the septum of the scrotum extended to the canal of the urethra; this is not unlike the fissure of the hare-lip being continued through the bony palate, a circumstance often met with. The under surface of the penis was attached, through its whole length, to the two bags containing the testicles, looking like a preternatural clitoris; to which it bore a more perfect resemblance from the absence of the urethra. The urine passed through a preternatural termination of the urethra in the perineum, and came out externally in the space between the testicles, which formed an enlarged aperture that had been mistaken for a narrow vagina, in consequence of its allowing an instrument to pass to some distance, by conducting it to the bladder. Such mal-formation of the male organs^[477] is particularly worthy attention, for it is that, more than any other, which has given origin^[478] to mistakes respecting the mixture of the sexes. The lusus often occurs in different degrees of imperfection, and may in some instances be materially diminished by art. In the second case, it may be observed that there are two mal-formations of the female organs of generation, which may give to the external parts a doubtful character; one is an enlargement of the clitoris; the other, a protrusion of the internal parts. It has been already stated that enlargements of the clitoris are not of rare occurrence, especially in hot climates; and that at birth it is often larger than the penis, and has frequently given rise to mistakes; so that females have been baptised as males.^[479] The following remarks may serve to lead to a correct decision upon these occasions:—If the subject be a female, the labia are well formed, and when handled no round bodies are felt in them like testicles; the fissure at the extremity of the glans does not communicate with any canal of the urethra; but under the glans, and at the posterior extremity of the fissure, there is an opening which leads immediately to the bladder.^[480]

The other mal-formation of the female genital organs consists in a protrusion of the internal parts, of which we have already given an example (see page 28); the womb when thus displaced, has assumed so close a resemblance to the penis, that it has been actually mistaken for one by medical men of the highest character, as in the instance related by Sir. E. Home in his paper upon Hermaphrodites; another case is also published in the fifteenth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, in which the menses periodically flowed through the orifice of the supposed penis. With respect to the third order of imagined hermaphrodites, which Sir E. Home has called neuters, and where the subject, although a male, has not, in consequence of organic defects, the characters of his sex, has been said to be more common than is generally supposed, especially in early life, and that by farther developement the anomalies have sometimes disappeared; it is, probably, as Sir E. Home very justly observes, only those whose form is very like females, that have attracted the notice of common observers, so as to have their defects discovered. Ambrose ParÉ mentions a case, where by violent exertion, the male organs of generation became suddenly developed, and the person who had before been considered as a female, was admitted to the rights of manhood; and a similar case is recorded by M. Veay, as having happened at Thoulouse, (see also Montaigne’s Essay, chap. xx.) The examples which fall under the fourth order are very uncommon in occurrence,—where there is a real mixture of the organs of both sexes, although not sufficiently complete to constitute double organs; indeed we are very much inclined to question whether a real participation of the nature of both sexes ever takes place; in almost every case where due examination has been made, such persons have been found to belong decidedly to the one sex or to the other. Petit^[481] has reported the dissection of a soldier, aged twenty-two, who had not only the testes in the abdomen, but also a womb, and nearly the whole apparatus of the female genitals; in this, as well as similar stories, we are disposed to think with Dr. Gordon Smith,^[482] that things have been called by wrong names.^[483]