ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 237 



pigment. He has worked with the young larvae of the giant salamander, 

 Cryptobranchus, and finds that if small quantities of phenols are 

 introduced into the tissues of the developing larvae before pigmentation 

 begins, the onset of pigmentation is markedly postponed and the 

 pigment produced is much reduced in amount. They act by inhibiting 

 the oxidation of tyrosin — a process which forms black pigment. The 

 larvae do not survive beyond the stage when the stored food in the egg 

 is all utilized, so it is not known how long the modifications would last. 

 Banta also found that amphibian larvae reared in a cave have little 

 pigment until the period of transformation approaches, when a normal 

 quantity develops. In the Amphipod Eucrangonyx gracilis the forms 

 reared in a cave have much less than the normal quantity of pigment. 

 They are less reactive to photic stimulation, and more reactive to 

 tactile stimulation than their relatives in the open. 



Hermaphroditism and Pseudo-Hermaphroditism in Mammals.* 

 D. Berry Hart points out that the occurrence of ova and spermatozoa 

 in a common sex-gland has not been proved in Mammals, and that we 

 cannot have a pseudo form of a non-existent condition. It would be 

 bitter to speak of atypical sex-ensembles. The atypical female sex- 

 ensembles is thus characterized : Sex-glands female ; opposite sex-duct 

 elements in varying amount, but not in minimum of the typical sex- 

 ensemble ; potent segments present, but not in the maximum of the 

 typical sex-ensemble ; secondary sexual characteristics in some degree 

 non-congruent. The atypical male sex-ensemble is thus characterized : 

 Sex-glands, testes, undescended or descended ; opposite sex-duct elements 

 in varying states of representation, but not at the minimum of the 

 typical sex-ensemble ; potent sex-duct elements diminished, and not at 

 the maximum of the typical male sex-ensemble ; secondary sexual 

 characteristics non -congruent. 



The proportions are disturbed in atypical cases. In atypical female 

 cases a prostate with lateral lobes only, or with all the lobes, may be 

 present ; the suprarenals are enlarged. In atypical male cases part of 

 the lower urinogenital sinus may be present (simulating a vagina and a 

 hymen), the testes may be pelvic, and so on. 



In essence, such cases have this sequence developmentally — (a) loss of 

 parental determinants of the sex-ensemble at maturation ; (b) the sub- 

 sequent formation of sex-uisemble molecules with this loss when the 

 determinants are distributed in the germ-cells and somatic cells ; (c) in 

 such cases the sex-gland will have normal sex-ensemble molecules and 

 others unduly reduced. The latter will give rise to atypical male or 

 female sex-ensemble in progeny ; (V) this can be distributed again by 

 such progeny to their offspring. 



In diagnosis the whole sex-ensemble must be taken into account ; above 

 all that of the sex-gland when accessible. Xo diagnosis can be based 

 on one organ of the sex-ensemble, e.g. on the presence of a prostate, ' 

 hymen, apparent vagina, condition of larynx, or psycho-sexual feelings. 

 An apparent vagina with labia means male sex-ensemble ; in the atypical 



* Edinburgh Med. Journ., Oct. 1914, pp. 1-24 (4 pis. and 1 fig.). 



June Kith, 1915 s 



