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anomalies and curiosities of medicine-第72章

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t of hypospadias。 Postmortem a complete set of female genitalia was found; although the ovaries were very small。 The right round ligament was exceedingly thick and reached down to the bottom of the false scrotum; where it was firmly attached。 The hard bodies proved to be on one side an irreducible omental hernia; probably congenital; and on the other a hardened mass having no glandular structure。 The patient was an adult。 As we have seen; there seems to be a law of evolution in hermaphroditism which prevents perfection。 If one set of genitalia are extraordinarily developed; the other set are correspondingly atrophied。 In the case of extreme development of the clitoris and approximation to the male type we must expect to find imperfectly developed uterus or ovaries。 This would answer for one of the causes of sterility in these cases。

There is a type of hermaphroditism in which the sex cannot be definitely declared; and sometimes dissection does not definitely indicate the predominating sex。 Such cases are classed under the head of neuter hermaphrodites; possibly an analogy of the 〃genus epicoenum〃 of Quintilian。 Marie Dorothee; of the age of twenty…three; was examined and declared a girl by Hufeland and Mursina; while Stark; Raschig; and Martens maintained that she was a boy。 This formidable array of talent on both sides provoked much discussion in contemporary publications; and the case attracted much notice。 Marc saw her in 1803; at which time she carried contradicting certificates as to her sex。 He found an imperforate penis; and on the inferior face near the root an opening for the passage of urine。 No traces of nymphae; vagina; testicles; nor beard were seen。 The stature was small; the form debilitated; and the voice effeminate。 Marc came to the conclusion that it was impossible for any man to determine either one sex or the other。 Everard Home dissected a dog with apparent external organs of the female; but discovered that neither sex was sufficiently pronounced to admit of classification。 Home also saw at the Royal Marine Hospital at Plymouth; in 1779; a marine who some days after admission was reported to be a girl。 On examination Home found him to possess a weak voice; soft skin; voluminous breasts; little beard; and the thighs and legs of a woman。 There was fat on the pubis; the penis was short and small and incapable of erection; the testicles of fetal size; he had no venereal desires whatever; and as regards sex was virtually neuter。

The legal aspect of hermaphroditism has always been much discussed。 Many interesting questions arise; and extraordinary complications naturally occur。 In Rome a hermaphrodite could be a witness to a testament; the exclusive privilege of a man; and the sex was settled by the predominance。 If the male aspect and traits together with the generative organs of man were most pronounced; then the individual could call himself a man。 〃Hermaphroditus an ad testamentum adhiberi possit qualitas sesus incalescentis ostendit。〃

There is a peculiar case on record in which the question of legal male inheritance was not settled until the individual had lived as a female for fifty…one years。 This person was married when twenty…one; but finding coitus impossible; separated after ten years; and though dressing as a female had coitus with other women。 She finally lived with her brother; with whom she eventually came to blows。 She prosecuted him for assault; and the brother in return charged her with seducing his wife。 Examination ensued; and at this ripe age she was declared to be a male。

The literature on hermaphroditism is so extensive that it is impossible to select a proper representation of the interesting cases in this limited space; and the reader is referred to the modern French works on this subject; in which the material is exhaustive and the discussion thoroughly scientific。



CHAPTER VI。

MINOR TERATA。

Ancient Ideas Relative to Minor Terata。The ancients viewed with great interest the minor structural anomalies of man; and held them to be divine signs or warnings in much the same manner as they considered more pronounced monstrosities。 In a most interesting and instructive article; Ballantyne quotes Ragozin in saying that the Chaldeo…Babylonians; in addition to their other numerous subdivisions of divination; drew presages and omens for good or evil from the appearance of the liver; bowels; and viscera of animals offered for sacrifice and opened for inspection; and from the natural defects or monstrosities of babies or the young of animals。 Ballantyne names this latter subdivision of divination fetomancy or teratoscopy; and thus renders a special chapter as to omens derived from monstrous births; given by Lenormant:

〃The prognostics which the Chaldeans claimed to draw from monstrous births in man and the animals are worthy of forming a class by themselves; insomuch the more as it is the part of their divinatory science with which; up to the present time; we are best acquainted。 The development that their astrology had given to 'genethliaque;' or the art of horoscopes of births; had led them early to attribute great importance to all the teratologic facts which were there produced。 They claimed that an experience of 470;000 years of observations; all concordant; fully justified their system; and that in nothing was the influence of the stars marked in a more indubitable manner than in the fatal law which determined the destiny of each individual according to the state of the sky at the moment when he came into the world。 Cicero; by the very terms which he uses to refute the Chaldeans; shows that the result of these ideas was to consider all infirmities and monstrosities that new…born infants exhibited as the inevitable and irremediable consequence of the action of these astral positions。 This being granted; the observation of similar monstrosities gave; as it were; a reflection of the state of the sky; on which depended all terrestrial things; consequently; one might read in them the future with as much certainty as in the stars themselves。 For this reason the greatest possible importance was attached to the teratologic auguries which occupy so much space in the fragments of the great treatise on terrestrial presages which have up to the present time been published。〃

The rendering into English of the account of 62 teratologic cases in the human subject with the prophetic meanings attached to them by Chaldean diviners; after the translation of Opport; is given as follows by Ballantyne; some of the words being untranslatable:

〃When a woman gives birth to an infant

(1) that has the ears of a lion; there will be a powerful king in the country;

(2) that wants the right ear; the days of the master (king) will be prolonged (reach old age);

(3) that wants both ears; there will be mourning in the country; and the country will be lessened (diminished);

(4) whose right ear is small; the house of the man (in whose house the birth took place) will be destroyed;

(5) whose ears are both small; the house of the man will be built of bricks;

(6) whose right ear is mudissu tehaat (monstrous); there will be an androgyne in the house of the new…born

(7) whose ears are bo
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