Hermaphroditism.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hermaphroditism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    was furnished with a corresponding multilocular vesicula seminalis (dd). Of the internal fe- male sexual organs there were found a perfectly developed uterus (e e), with its broad (n n) and round (o o) ligaments naturally formed and placed, and provided with two Fallopian tubes (,/’/’) that followed the course of the testicles through the inguinal canals, and a va- gina (g) which opened into the urethra (A) near its external orifice. The ejaculatory ducts of the male vesicul® seminales opened into this vagina at l and in. The internal surface of the vagina was already beginning to present the appearance of its usual rug®. The cavity of the uterus was triangular, and exhibited on the internal part of the cervix its characteristic plicated or arborescent structure. The Fallo- pian tubes were, at their uterine orifices, of a large caliber; their cavity afterwards became suddenly contracted, and then again dilated, and terminated at their ulterior extremities, where they lay in contact with the testicles at the external inguinal rings, in blind sacs (i i), without any very distinct appearance of fim- bri®. The external genital parts in this very interesting case were of a doubtful nature, being referable either to those of a hypospadic male, or of a female with a large clitoris, but without nymph®, the meatus urinarius being in its normal situation, but leading behind to the cavities of both the urinary bladder and uterus. The circle of the pelvic bones was large. i. The two other instances described by Mayer occurred in adult subjects, and the mal- formation in both of them differed from that found in the cases just now cited in this, that there was only one testicle present along with the imperfect uterus. The subject of one of these cases* was a person who died at the age of eighteen, and whose external sexual organs were those of a hypospadic male, with a narrow perinseal canal or fissure. On dissection this perinaeal canal was found to communicate anteriorly with the urethra, and posteriorly with a vagina of two inches and nine lines in length, and five or six lines in caliber. The anterior and posterior column of rug® belonging to the vagina was only slightly marked. Its canal led to a large dilated uterus, the superior part of which was unfortunately cut away with some dis- eased viscera before the genital organs were examined; but, from the portion left, this organ seemed to resemble the uterus of quad- rupeds in its oblong form, and in the thinness of its walls, which were composed of a caver- nous fibro-vascular texture, and full of lacunae. The usual arborescent appearance of the inter- nal surface of the os uteri was very perfectly marked. Besides these female organs, there was a well-formed male prostate gland at the neck of the bladder ; and behind the abdomi- nal ring of the right side, a small roundish body, similar in form and texture to the testi- cle, and having the cremaster muscle adhering to its membranous involucrum. There were no traces of any similar organ on the left side. On both sides some portions of a oanal were seen, but whether they were the remains of the vasa deferentia or Fallopian tubes was not ascertained on account of the previous mutilation of the uterus. On each side of the neck of the uterus there was placed a vesicula seminalis, provided with an ejaculatory duct that opened into the orifice of the vagina. The dimensions of the pelvis approached much nearer to those of the female than those of the male. In the secondary sexual characters of the individual, the female type was further re- cognised in the want of prominence in the larynx, in the slender form of the neck, and (according to Professor Mayer) in the rounded shape also of the heart, the smallness of the lungs, the oblong shape of the stomach, the large size of the liver, the narrowness of the forehead, and the conformation of the brain ; while the individual approximated, on the other hand, to the male in the length and posi- tion of the inferior extremities, in the breadth of the thorax, the undeveloped state of the mammas and the hairy condition of their pa- pill®, and in the existence of a slender beard upon the chin and cheeks. j. In the second adult subject (a person of eighty years of age) Mayer* found, on the left side of the cavity of the abdomen, and near the inguinal ring, a small oval body exhibiting imperfectly in its internal structure the tubular texture of the male testicle, and having an appendix resembling the epididymis attached to it. From this testicle arose a vas deferens, which was joined in its course by a vesicula seminalis, and ended in an ejaculatory duct. On the opposite or right side a vesicula semina- lis, having no continuous cavity, was present; but no vestige of a corresponding testicle, vas deferens, or ejaculatory duct could be disco- vered. The prostate gland was present, and regularly formed. In the cavity of the pelvis an uterus was found with parietes of moderate thickness, and of the usual cavernous texture; its cervix was marked internally with the appear- ance of the natural arborescent rug®. Inferiorly it opened into a narrow membranous vagina, that received the right ejaculatory duct, then passed through the body of the prostate, and latterly joined the canal of the urethra. The fundus of the uterus could not be examined, as it had been removed in a previous stage of the dissection. The external parts were male and naturally formed, with the exception of the penis, which was shorter than usual, and had the canal of the urethra fissured inferiorly, and the meatus urinarius situated at its root. The individual was during life regarded as a male, but had all along remained in a state of celi- bacy. The general appearance of the face and body was that of an imperfectly marked male, but the pelvis was broad like that of a female. 3. Co-existence of female ovaries and male testicles.—This third division of complex or double hermaphroditism includes all those cases in which a male testicle and female ovary exist together either upon one side only, or upon