Change of sex sanctioned by a Maltese law court in the eighteenth century

Abstract

In view of the correspondence about the legal and psychological implications of a late change in the established sex of adults (Journal, 1954, 1, 694, 710, 876, 1040), the following case of pseudo-hermaphroditism recorded in the documents of the old Grand Court of Malta in 1774 may be of interest. The manuscripts, so far unpublished, form part of a collection of legal papers entitled " Bandi 1772-1779 " and are to be found in folios 80 and 81 of MS. 429 at the Royal Malta Library of Valletta. They concern a certain Rosa Mifsud, from the village of Luqa, who was brought up as a girl apparently because from the anatomical configuration of her external genitalia at birth she was thought to be a female. The documents referred to above are not as informative as one would wish them to be. for they leave us in the dark concerning the circumstances which led to the appointment by the Grand Court of two medical experts to examine and report on the sex of Rosa Mifsud when she attained the age of 17 years. It may be noted, in passing, that Malta was then ruled by the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. also known as the Knights of Malta, to whose Medical School and Holy Infirmary of Valletta students resorted to learn anatomy and surgery and foreign patients flocked to seek advice and treatment.