688 



HERMAPHRODITISM. 



death shewed tliat the sex was actually female. 

 The uterus and other female organs ( fig. 287, 

 c c c) were present and apparently naturally 



Fig. 287. 



formed ; but the clitoris (fc) was fully as large, 

 and in appearance closely resembled the penis 

 of a male of the same age. At its anterior 

 extremity there was a sulcus (a), which was 

 not the entrance of the urethra, but terminated 

 in a cul-de-sac. 



Columbus* and De Graaff give two similar 

 examples of the same form of spurious her- 

 maphroditism in young children, in which the 

 true sex was only fully ascertained by dis- 

 section after death. In relation to the clitoris 

 in the case described by Columbus, that author 

 states that this organ was furnished with two 

 muscles only, and not with four, as in the per- 

 fect male. 



In a reputed hermaphrodite woman, Gallay| 

 found after death the clitoris to be three and a 

 half inches long, and three inches and four 

 lines in circumference. The glans and prepuce 

 were well developed. The urethra ran as in 

 man through the body of the penis and its 

 glans. The labia, nymphae, vagina, &c. were 

 natural, and the internal female organs, the 

 ovaries, Fallopian tubes, and uterus, are de- 

 scribed as scirrhous. This woman had been 

 married, but never had any children ; her ca- 

 tamenia, however, had been very regular. She 

 had a considerable quantity of hair upon her 

 face, and her voice was harsh and masculine. 



In a child of two years of age, Schneider, 

 on dissection after death, could find neither 

 the labia externa nor interna, nor any trace of 

 the ordinary cleft between them. The clitoris 

 was an inch and a half long, and externally 

 resembled most perfectly a male penis fur- 

 nished with a glans and prepuce ; but it was 

 imperforate, having only at its anterior extre- 

 mity a small spot marking the situation of the 

 opening of the urethra in the male. Some 



* De Re Anatomica, lib. xv. p. 493. 



t Op. Om. cap. iii. xv. or, DC mulierum organis 

 gen. inserv. with a plate. 



{ Arnaud, 1. c. p. 309. 



Jahrbiichcr dcr Staatsarzneikunde, (1809), 

 . 193. 



lines below there was an opening by which 

 the urine was evacuated. This upininu formed 

 the entrance to the vagina, which was found of 

 the usual length, and with the characteristic 

 rugae. The canal of the urethra was found 

 entering its roof, but in such a manner that 

 the urine was always evacuated very slowly 

 and by drops only from the external opening. 

 All the internal female sexual organs were 

 natural. 



M. lieclard* has left us a very detailed and 

 interesting description of an example of spu- 

 rious hermaphroditism referable to the present 

 variety, and exhibited at Paris in 1814. The 

 subject of the case, Marie Madeline Lefort, 

 was at that time sixteen years of age. The 

 proportions of the trunk and members, and of 

 the shoulders and pelvis, and the conformation 

 and dimensions of this last part of the body, 

 were all masculine; the volume of the larynx 

 also, and the tone of the voice were those of 

 an adolescent male ; a beard was appearing on 

 the upper lip, chin, and region of the parotids; 

 some hairs were growing in the areola around 

 the nipple ; and the mamma? were of a mode- 

 rate size. The inferior extremities were fur- 

 nished with an abundance of long hard hairs. 

 The symphysis pubis was elongated as in man ; 

 the mons veneris rounded, and the labia ex- 

 terna were covered with hair. The clitoris was 

 10J (?) inches (27 centimetres) in length when 

 at rest, but somewhat more when erect; its 

 glans was imperforate, and covered in three- 

 fourths of its circumference with a mobile pre- 

 puce. The body of this enlarged clitoris was 

 furnished inferiorly with an imperfect canal, 

 which produced a depression in it, instead of 

 that prominence of this part which exists in the 

 male penis. This canal was pierced along its 

 under surface and median line by five small 

 holes capable of admitting a small stylet ; and 

 one or more similar apertures seemed to exist 

 in it after it reached backwards within the va- 

 gina. The labia were narrow and short, and 

 the vulva or sulcus between them was superfi- 

 cial, being blocked up by a dense membrane, 

 which, under the pressure of the finger, felt as 

 if stretched towards the anus over a cavitv. At 

 its anterior part, or below the clitoris, there was 

 an opening capable of admitting a sound of 

 moderate size, and this sound could be made 

 to pass backwards behind the membrane closing 

 the vulva, which, when felt between the point 

 of the instrument and the finger, seemed about 

 twice as thick as the skin. The urine was 

 passed by this opening, and also, according to 

 the report of the individual herself, through 

 the cribriform holes in the canal extending 

 along the inferior surface of the urethra. By 

 the same opening the menstrual fluid escaped, 

 as Beclard ascertained on one occasion by per- 

 sonal examination. She had menstruated re- 

 gularly from the age of eight years, considered 

 herself a female, and preferred the society of 

 men. 



In this interesting case we have present all 

 the secondary sexual characters of the male, 



* Bulletins de la Faculte for 1815, p. 273. 



