Legal Term: HERMAPHRODITES

Definition: 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 Dunglisons Hum. Physiol. 304; 1 Becks 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 , 2, n. 2; Dict. des Sciences M«d. art. Hypospadias, et art. Impuissance; Guy, Med. Jur. 42, 47.

Return to the Legalnut.com Law Dictionary