[Forgotten evidence of adrenogenital syndrome]

At present, the adrenogenital syndrome must surely be reckoned among the most widely known conditions in endocrine pathology. It may come as a surprise that no unambiguous cases of adrenogenitalism are on record before the end of the 19th century. While granting that impressive clinical descriptions may be found in isolated instances, postmortem findings are either totally missing or were not recorded in sufficient detail, thus greatly diminishing their value for retrospective study. This, however, does not apply to a case published by Luigi de Crecchio, a Naples anatomist, in 1865, of a female pseudo-hermaphrodite. De Crecchio provides, for the first time ever, a clear description of a rare pathology, underpinned by an exemplary postmortem examination, detailed clinical findings, and biographical data. Based on a complete translation of De Crecchio's article, our study comments on this almost forgotten case history, placing it, at the same time, in the context of the history of endocrine research.