Account of a case of hermaphrodism / P.D. Handyside.

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881.
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of hermaphrodism / P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ®244'*> a/ss ACCOUNT OF A CASE OF HERMAPHRODISM. BY P. D. HANDYSIDE, M. D. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LECTURER ON ANATOMY IN EDINBURGH, &C. (Read before the Medico-Chirurg. Society, Dec. 3, 1834.) (From the Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, Ao. 123.) Gottlieb Gottlich, the son of an officer in the Saxon service, was bora at the village of Nieder Leuba, near Zittau, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the 6th of March 1798. He was considered at birth to be of the female sex, and was accordingly baptized by the name of Marie Rosine Gottlich ; the initial letters of which name, with the figures 1818, are stained on his right arm. He had a brother and two sisters, who died before he was born, and of whose appearance he can give no account. He was brought up and entered into service as a female, without his true sex being ever suspected, even by himself, till the spring of 1831, when, on account of a fracture of the left osfemoris, he was received into the hospital at Dresden. At this period, the part which had hitherto been regarded as the left labium externum became distended by a small round tumour, which proved to be the left testicle, that had descended from the abdomen, following the course of an inguinal hernia, which had been produced by a strain at work a short time be¬ fore. The intestine becoming strangulated. Professor Bach ope¬ rated for its relief. A year after this the right testicle descended after a precise¬ ly similar manner, and on this occasion Gottlich being at Got¬ tingen, the strangulation was relieved by an operation performed by Professor Langenbeck. The cicatrices are still visible on each groin, marking the seat of these two operations.* To ob- * I beg to refer to the annexed sketch of Gottlich, and also to a cast in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of the greater part of his body, which I took the opportunity of making during his late stay in Edinburgh.