282 R. PEARL AND M. R. CURTIS. 



persistence of the female secondary sexual characters. The fact 

 that in man vasectomy (practised, for example, in Indiana for the 

 sterilization of criminals and certain other undesirable citizens) 

 produces no effect whatever on secondary sexual characters or 

 the sexual appetite is again evidence in the same direction. 



The present case, of course, affords no direct evidence as to 

 whether a secretion influencing secondary sexual characters may 

 not be produced by the interstitial or stromal cells. 



A further point of considerable interest lies in the fact that in 

 this bird we have a fully developed, normal, and so far as can be 

 told, entirely functional oviduct in the absence of a functional 

 ovary. Normally in the hen the oviduct is in an atrophied, non- 

 functional condition at times when laying is not going on, i. e., when 

 the ovary is not functioning. In the young pullet the oviduct 

 stays in an infantile condition until the oocytes begin to enlarge 

 by the deposition of yolk just before laying begins. As the yolks 

 approach the size at which they are separated from the ovary the 

 albumen-secreting and other glands of the oviduct become enor- 

 mously enlarged and the whole organ passes into the " laying 

 condition." After laying stops the glands quickly atrophy and 

 the whole organ goes back to the adolescent condition. In other 

 words, there is in the normal bird a close correlation between the 

 functioning of ovary and oviduct. There is, of course, a similar 

 apparent correlation between ovary and uterus in mammals. 1 

 Now in this hermaphrodite specimen the correlation is apparently 

 upset. We have the oviduct in "laying condition " in a bird in 

 which the ovary is absolutely non-functional so far as ovulation 

 is concerned. The two cases of hermaphroditism in the domestic 

 fowl described by Shattock and Seligmann 2 essentially parallel 

 ours in this regard. In both cases they found a well-developed 



1 Here the brilliant work of Dr. Leo Loeb is establishing, by means of analytical 

 experimentation, the causal factors in the physiology of the uterus. Cf. Loeb, L., 

 " The Production of Deciduomata and the Relation between the Ovaries and the 

 Formation of the Decidua," Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., Vol. L., pp. 1897-1901. 

 June 6, 1908. 



2 Shattock, S. G., and Seligmann, C. G., " An Example of True Hermaphroditism 

 in the Domestic Fowl, with Remarks on the Phenomenon of Allopteratism," Trans. 

 Pathol. Soc. London, Vol. 57, pp. 69-109, Plate L, 1906. "An Example of In- 

 complete Glandular Hermaphroditism in the Domestic Fowl," Proc. Roy. Soc. Medi- 

 cine, Vol. L, pp. 3-7, 1907. 



