# THE ABNORMAL FORMATION OF MALE AND FEMALE GENITALS

Just as Nature, in forming the other parts of the body, is sometimes generous and sometimes stingy depending on the occasion, she seems to act in the same way regarding the creation of the genitals. Occasionally, she produces no penis in males, or she doubles it. For instance, Tobias Coelinus, in observations sent to Schenck, mentions an infant born without a genital member; in its place was an opening through which urine was passed, though the scrotum and both testicles were otherwise correctly formed. Similarly, Ali ibn Rodhwan, in his commentaries on Galen’s *Art of Medicine*, recounts seeing a fetus without a penis or testicles, where Nature had instead produced a small opening through which urine gradually dripped.

Conversely, Nature sometimes multiplies these genitals. Jacob Wecker, in notes sent to Schenck, relates that he saw the corpse of a man with a double penis during public dissections in Bologna. Cardano records a correctly formed infant born in Britain whose genitals were inserted into another set of genitals. Furthermore, Vesalius, in his work *On the Fabric of the Human Body*, reveals that he knew a noble young law student in Padua who had two open channels at the tip of the glans—one for semen and the other for urine. On the other hand, some are born with the glans entirely unperforated.

What we have stated so far regarding the penis should also be understood to apply to the testicles. Eusebius recorded that Dorotheus, the Bishop of Antioch—a man highly learned in Greek and Hebrew literature—was born a eunuch, that is, without testicles. There are indeed eunuchs who come from the mother’s womb without testicles, just as those who are deprived of them before puberty are also called eunuchs. Some, however, prefer to call the latter "spadones," from the Greek word *spao*, meaning to pluck or pull out, because their testicles were removed after birth. Of these, a certain poet once sang:

"With my testicles cut out, my manly strength perishes. Yet my penis will be witness that I am a man."

Others make a twofold distinction among those who have undergone such procedures, calling those who lack only one testicle "spadones," while reserving the term "eunuchs" for those deprived of both. Whatever the case may be, there is no doubt that infants have been seen born with only a single testicle. Caelius Rhodiginus reports that Sulla and Cotta were famous men who had only one. Ali ibn Rodhwan also recorded in his commentaries on Galen’s medicine that a boy lived in his own time who possessed only a single testicle.

We believe what we have asserted regarding the human fetus also applies to animals. Trincavelli reported in his works that he observed a dog born with only one testicle. Likewise, Cardano saw a dog born seemingly without either; but since he noticed the animal was prone to lust, he discovered the testicles were internal, though they could not be felt externally.

On the other hand, Nature sometimes multiplies the testicles in animals. Rhodiginus published a very pleasant story about Agathocles, the Tyrant of Sicily, who was called *triorchis*—either because, as many believed, he was endowed with three testicles, or because he resembled the *Triorchis* bird (a type of hawk that ornithologists call a buzzard), which is said to be a very predatory and highly lustful creature. Furthermore, Montuus in his *Refutation of Diseases* and Fernel in his *Pathology* mention men gifted with three testicles. Likewise, the commentator on Houllier wrote that he happened to see a third testicle in a boy who was the son of a printer. Years ago in Bologna, we ourselves observed three testicles in a young medical student from Piedmont, though the third felt only half the size of the others upon examination.