INTERSEXUALITY 371 



Whatever the real cause of homosexuahty may be, we must 

 assume that it is somehow due to disturbances in the 

 endocrine function of the sex gland or of some other organ 

 of internal secretion, or by the suppression of the endocrine 

 function of these glands. But this does not imply that external 

 factors are without any significance and should not be taken 

 into consideration in explaining homosexuality. It is not 

 impossible even that in some cases external factors are alone 

 sufficient to account for the abnormal condition. The psycho- 

 sexual behaviour of a given individual is always the result of 

 interference of a great and very variable complex of external 

 factors with a given but also changeable somatic organisation. 

 Some years ago Kraepelin (1918, p. 118), in opposition to 

 Hirschfeld, said that there is no proof of the assumption that 

 homosexuality is an inborn condition. I think that Weil's 

 measurements supply definite evidence that many cases of 

 homosexuality are caused, as said above, by some disturbance 

 of an endocrine order. But I should like to insist that this 

 endocrine disturbance is not necessarily always of an inter- 

 sexual order, and it is by no means impossible that external 

 factors may in some instances be responsible for the homo- 

 sexual condition. 



{b) Other forms of inter sexuality in man. 



In the medical literature many cases are known, where 

 during childhood or after puberty a change of sex characters 

 to those of the opposite sex took place. According to Neuge- 

 hauer {1908) there were in Warsaw about thirty hermaphrodites 

 (or pseudo-hermaphrodites in the old terminology) in a popu- 

 lation of 800,000. It is not possible and not necessary to give 

 here a detailed description of the different cases of herma- 

 phroditism in man, which show indeed a very great variability. 

 Two cases, however, may be described, as they may be taken 

 as examples of two etiological possibilities in similar cases. 



The first was that of a girl, who up to the age of three developed 

 like a normal female. Then the clitoris hypertrophied and 

 came to resemble a penis of that age. Pubes of female appear- 

 ance and male characters such as the low male voice and 

 beard developed, the first signs of the latter having already 

 appeared in the third year. This case was examined by many 

 specialists, and at an age of about nine carefully described by 



