The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (1847)

The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (1847) includes passages about intersex conditions.

Content Warning

The passages contained within this journal use terminology that is racially pejorative.

References

• The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (1847) "Art. VII--Case of Doubtful Sex" by Dr. S. H. Harris, M.D., of Clarksville, VA.

Passages

Art. VII.--Case of Doubtful Sex

By S.H. Harris, M. D., of Clarkesvill, Va.

The existence of hermaphrodites, or those creatures which were at one time supposed to unit in the same individual the distinctive organs of the two sexes, is now, I believe, wholly denied by physiologists. Creatures of our race, however, have frequently been noticed, presenting such equivocal appearances in their sexual apparatus as to render it exceedingly doubtful as to their sexuality. A monster of this singular character is now living in Mecklinburg county, Virginia, and is probably as remarkable a case of the kind as any recorded in the annals of physiology.

In describing the creature I shall use the masculine pronoun man, more for the sake of convenience, than from any conviction of its grammatical propriety.

Ned, a slave and house servant, wearing man's apparel, is about eighteen years of age and probably five feet eight or nine inches high; and though not corpulent, is rather robust than otherwise. His head is large, with a coarse masculine face, wide mouth, thick lips, feminine voice, and a chin entirely destitute of beard. His skin is soft and delicate, with upper and lower extremities well formed and founded, with the exception of his feet which resemble very much the males of the African race. Thus far, however, his general appearance presents nothing very remarkable, or anything calculated to excite doubts as to his sexuality. His shining ebony skin and rounded limb, are not uncommon with negro boys, trained up as house servants among the luxurious livers of the South. But on opening his vest and shirt bosom, there are presented two large and well developed mammae, having all the external characteristics of the breast of a health well-formed young woman. His neck, shoulders, and chest partake likewise of this feminine character, having the soft and voluptuous outline of the female. On examining the external genital organs, which, by the way, are exhibited with marked reluctance, a strange and anomalous appearance is presented. The pubis is large, prominent, and covered with hair as in the female, and but for the conspicuous projection of a dwarfish-looking penis, about an inch long in the usual situation of that organ, the creature would at once be pronounced a woman. This penis is naturally formed in every respect, and eminently endowed, as he informed me, with virile sensibility. Immediately below it is a cleft or fissure running back as in the female organ, to the perineum, the sides of which are formed of thick folds of skin, resembling somewhat the scrotum, and shaded with long hair, representing tolerably well the external labia of the female. No testicles can be found. On separating the thighs the fissure is found to be from an inch to an inch and a half deep, smooth at the bottom and exactly in the situation of the vagina. The cavernous portions of the penis may be distinctly felt through the walls of the cavity near the bottom. The membrane lining it appears, in fact, to be only a continuation of the outward skin, but is more soft and delicate; without, however, any of the characteristics of the vaginal mucous membrane. Pressing the finger on the bottom it yields so readily, as to induce the belief that there is a cavity within, the outlet to which is merely closed up by the skin or membrane stretched across the bottom of the fissure. But the anomaly does not stop here. This singular creature has been regularly menstruating for three or four years through the penis, attended in its inception and progress, by all the symptoms which commonly characterize the catamenia in young females. So well marked are the returns of this monthly discharge by the usual disturbance of the system, that the elder members of the family are never at a loss to determine when he is under its influence. As in most females in every station of life, there is likewise at such periods a shrinking from observation, and the constant exercise of a sleepless vigilance in preventing exposure. The amount or character of the discharge has never been clearly ascertained, but from his own imperfect account of it, and the evidences furnished by his linen, it differs not very materially either in quantity or quality from that of a young woman.

The question here naturally presents itself, to which of the sexes does this human belong? In view of all the facts stated, the conclusion I think, is forced upon us, that the female organs predominate, or, in other words, that while the creature has only one of the organs of the male, and that an imperfect one, he has within the pelvis the interior genital apparatus of the female. That there is a uterus with its appendages I feel no doubt; or whence this regular catamenial discharge, and all those attributes, both moral and physical, which mark the presence of such an organ?--But it has been remarked that he displays in his general deportment, a decided partiality for the society of young females, and it has even been noticed that he exhibits towards them at times strong salacious propensities. This, I think, can be easily accounted for on the supposition, that he has been, from childhood up, taught to look upon himself as a male, and now in imitation of others, deports himself as such to the other sex. Whether his amorous advances to the dusky maidens around him, has ever resulted in any practical display of virility, is unknown. In the absence of all information on the subject, it is fair to conclude, that no seminal discharge has, or ever will take place. Such a phenomenon as a regular menstrual discharge, and the immersion of semen masculinum, from the same set of organs, would place the creature in a new order of beings, with sexual endowments and faculties, but a little less remarkable than those ascribed to the fabled hermaphrodites. But whence comes this peculiar fluid? If furnished by a womb, how does it make its way into the urethra? These are questions certainly of very little importance in a practical point of view; but related as they do to the interesting science of physiology, are deemed not wholly unworthy of consideration of the learned.

[In connection with the above very curious case it may be interesting to quote the following analogous one related by Wm. James Barry, M. D., in the New York Journ. of Med., (Jan. 1847).]

In March, 1843, I was requested to examine the case of Levi Suydam, aged 23 years, a native of Salisbury, Conn. At the exciting and warmly contested election of the spring of this year, almost everything bearing the semblance of the human form, of the male sex, was brought to the ballot-box. It was at this time, and under these circumstances, that the above-mentioned person was presented by the whigs of Salisbury, to the board of Selectmen, to be made a free man; he was challenged by the opposite party on the ground that he was more a female than a male, and that, in his physical organization, he partook of both sexes.

The following was the result of the first examination. On exposing his person, I found the mons veneris covered in teh usual way; an imperforate penis, subject to erections, and about two inches and a half in length, with corresponding dimensions; the dorsum of the penis connected by the cuticle and cellular membrane to the pubis, leaving about an inch and a half free, or not bound up, and towards the pubic region. This penis has a well-formed glans, with a depression in the usual place of the meatus urinarium, a well-defined prepuce, with foramen, &c. The scrotum not fully developed, inasmuch as it was but half the usual size, and not pendulous. In the scrotum, and on the right side of the penis, one testicle of the size of a common filbert, with spermatic cord attached. In the perineum, at the root of the corpora cavernosa, an opening through which micturition was performed, this opening large enough to admit the introduction of an ordinary catheter. Having found a penis and one testicle, though imperfectly developed, and without further examination, I gave it as my opinion, that the person in question was a male citizen, and consequently entitled to all the privileges of a freeman.

On the morning of the 1st Monday in April (election day) I was informed that Dr. Ticknor would oppose Suydam's admission. Suydam came forward; Dr. Ticknor objected. I then stated to the meeting, that from an examination I had made, I pronounced the person in question to be a male, and requested that Dr. Ticknor might, with the consent of Suydam, retire into an adjoining room, and examine for himself. This was done, when Dr. Ticknor stated to the meeting that he was convinced that Suydam was a male. Suydam accordingly was admitted a freeman--voted--and the whig ticket carried by one majority.

A few days after the election, it was told me that Suydam had regular catamenia. I then commenced further investigations, and learned from Mrs. Ayres, the sister of Suydam, that she had washed him for years, and that he menstruated as regularly, but not as profusely, as most women. I next saw Suydam, who very unwillingly confessed that such was the fact. I then requested him to meet Dr. Ticknor and myself the next day at my office; when the following additional particulars were elicited. Said Suydam is five feet two inches in height, light-colored hair, fair complexion, with a beardless chin, and decidedly of a sanguineous temperament, narrow shoulders, and broad hips; in short, every way of a feminine figure. Well developed mammae, with nipples and areola. On passing a female catheter into the opening through which micturition was performed, and through which, he again stated, he had a monthly, periodical, bloody discharge, instead of traversing a canal and drawing off urine, the catheter appeared to enter immediately a passage similar to the vagina, three or four inches in depth, and in which there was considerable play of the instrument. He stated that he had amorous desires, and that, at such times, his inclination was for the male sex; his feminine propensities, such as a fondness for gay colors, for pieces of calico, comparing and placing them together, and an aversion for bodily labor, and an inability to perform the same, were remarked by many.

I further learned from an old lady who was present at the birth of Suydam, that on the second day after his birth, Dr. Delamater, who attended as accoucheur, made with an instrument, the opening through which he has ever since performed micturition.