Note 278 — VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE FOREGOING SUBJECTS, ELUCIDATED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES.

Transactions of the Medico-Chirurg. Society, vol. 1.

The following are the particulars of the case of Philip Howorth, as related by Mr. White—He was born in Quebec Mews, Portman Square, on Feb. 21, 1806; his parents are middle aged, and poor, but industrious people; the father being a coachman in a gentleman’s service, and the mother employed in nursing and rearing a family of ten children, of which Philip is the ninth: the father is a healthy and muscular man, the mother a middle sized woman, and rather delicate; the rest of the children are of the ordinary stature and appearance. During the mother’s pregnancy with Philip, (which continued the usual length of time) nothing occurred worthy of remark. At the birth, the head of the child was covered with a profusion of hair of considerable length; the sutures of the cranium were closed, not leaving the slightest vestige of a Fontanelle, and he was at this period considered, in point of size and appearance, as a large and healthy child; during the first year he was remarkably healthy, and could at about the 12th month run alone; shortly after this period, a very visible alteration took place, his countenance, which, until now, had been marked with health and infant beauty, lost its round and infantile form, and became long, pale, and extremely ugly, as if affected by the ravages of some bodily malady. These appearances seem to have been the preludes of those remarkable changes which quickly succeeded; at this period Nature made a sudden bound to puberty; the penis and testes were observed to increase in size, and a small number of black, curling hairs, were discovered on the pubes: an evident alteration also took place in the tone of the voice, his cries becoming much hoarser, and more interrupted; the peculiar organic changes which have been described as commencing on the completion of his first year continued to be rapidly increased, and the full developement of the sexual organs was attended with signs of returning health; the features assumed a more manly expression, and the rapid and successive growth of the body became the wonder of all who knew him. Mr. White then proceeds to state that part of his history which fell under his own notice; the first appearance of the boy, says he, is very striking, on account of the manly character so strongly impressed upon his countenance; the chin is without beard, but the black headed points of steatomatous matter so remarkable in young men previous to the growth of beard, is very apparent. The Axilla is without hair, but the secretion has the peculiar characteristic odour of the Adult; the pubes and scrotum are covered with black curling hair; the penis and testes are as large as has been seen in some adults, the corpus spongiosum urethræ having outgrown the corpora cavernosa, the penis is curved during erection; the testes are firm and perfect in their appearance, and the chord may be felt very distinctly; the prepuce is easily drawn back over the glans, and the secretion of the glandulæ odoriferæ is apparent; the usual brown appearance of the integuments of these parts is also to be observed. “Minime prætereundum est, quod hic puer virilis manstupratione gaudet, et semen ita eliminatum perfectum et bene eleboratum se habet.”

This extraordinary subject is now (1822) fifteen years of age, but no farther change has occurred in his habit; he is therefore like other young men of his age, and attends very industriously to the trade of a shoemaker, to which he is apprenticed.