Hermaphrodites
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HERMAPHRODITES. Persons who have in the sexual organs the appearance of both
sexes. They are adjudged to belong to that which prevails in them. Co. Litt.
2, 7; Domat, Lois Civ. liv. 1, t. 2, s. 1, n.. 9.
2. The sexual characteristics in the human species are widely
separated, and the two sexes are never, perhaps, united in the same
individual. 2 Dunglison's Hum. Physiol. 304; 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 94 to 110.
3. Dr. William Harris, in a lecture delivered to the Philadelphia
Medical Institute, gives an interesting account of a supposed hermaphrodite
who came under his own observation in Chester county, Pennsylvania. The
individual was called Elizabeth, and till the age of eighteen, wore the
female dress, when she threw it off, and assumed the name of Rees, with the
dress and habits of a man; at twenty-five, she married a woman, but had no
children. Her clitoris was five or six inches long, and in coition, which
she greatly enjoyed, she used this instead of the male organ. She lived till
she was sixty years of age, and died in possession of a large estate, which
she had acquired by her industry and enterprise. Medical Examiner, vol. ii.
p, 314. Vide 1 Briand, M‚d. L‚g. c. 2, art. 2, Sec. 2, n. 2; Dict. des
Sciences M‚d. art. Hypospadias, et art. Impuissance; Guy, Med. Jur. 42, 47.