Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 199 



tnaphrodism into two grand classes, hermaphrodism without ex- 

 cess, and hermaphrodism with excess. He subdivides the first 

 class into four groups, to-wit, 1st, Masculine hermaphrodism, 

 the generative apparatus being essentially male ; 2d, Feminine 

 hermaphrodism, the generative apparatus essentially female; 

 Neuter hermaphrodism, apparatus without determinate sex ; 

 4th, Mixed hermaphrodism, apparatus presenting a real mix- 

 ture of the two sexes. He admits these subdivisons in the se- 

 cond class; 1st, Masculine hermaphrodism complicated; 2d, 

 Feminine hermaphrodism complicated; 3d, Bisexual herma- 

 phrodism. M. GeofFroy then passes these several genera in re- 

 view. From the facts and observations contained in his papers, 

 the author draws the following conclusions. Perfect herma- 

 phrodism in the anatomical sense of the term, has never been ob- 

 served. The most complex cases are those where there exists 

 double organs deep-seated and intermediate, the one male, and 

 the other female ; and, in fact, the penis and clitoris, by reason 

 of their connexions with the several bones of the pelvis^ could 

 not co-exist without a serious disturbance of all the connexions. 

 As to perfect hermaphrodism, in the physiological sense of 

 the word, its possibility is incontestible in animals, as in fishes, 

 which have the two halves of the sexual apparatus quite sepa- 

 rated from each other in the normal state, and in which there is 

 no copulation. The frequency of hermaphrodism in general, and 

 of each kind of hermaphrodism in particular, is very different, 

 according to the groups of animals. Thus, in man, masculine 

 and feminine hermaphrodisms, particularly the first, are very 

 rare. " With reference to legal medicine, it is sufficient for me 

 to point out here," continues the author, " the insufficiency of 

 the precepts given by authors for the determination of the sex 

 in doubtful cases, precepts which have appeared exact only be- 

 cause there had been but a very few of the combinations dis- 

 tinguished which nature presents. This difficulty in distinguish- 

 ing the sex is the consequence of this general fact, that whilst 

 the internal organs vary almost to infinity in number, structure, 

 and arrangement, the external ones preserve their normal num- 

 ber, and the modifications which they present in other respects 

 being intermediate between the male and female sexes, are in- 

 cluded within limits sufficiently narrow. It is then impossible 



