350 INTERNAL SECRETIONS 



attain their climax after the expulsion or degeneration of the 

 ripened ovum when follicular cells are histologically prevalent 

 in the ovary. There is evidently no direct relation between 

 fully developed generative cells and full development of somatic 

 sex characters. It is clear that a knowledge of these facts 

 renders the case of the pseudo-hermaphrodite less contra- 

 dictory. Furthermore, if one adopts the view that the internal 

 secretion is to a certain degree independent of the generative 

 part of the gonad, the contradiction presented by the 

 pseudo-hermaphrodite may quite disappear, generative cells 

 not being necessary at all, according to this view, for full 

 development of the sex characters. Various authors have tried 

 to introduce this standpoint into the discussion of herma- 

 phroditism. Biedl (1913, p. 209) pointed out, that the normal 

 gonad is in the beginning possibly " bisexual," and that remains 

 of endocrine tissue of the other sex persist after a sexual 

 differentiation of the gonad has taken place, and that pseudo- 

 hermaphroditism may thereby be caused. Steinach (1912, p. 86) 

 speaks of an incomplete differentiation of the gonad, which 

 may be sexually indifferent in the beginning ; such an incom- 

 plete differentiation implies persistence of male endocrine 

 cells in the ovary and persistence of female endocrine cells 

 in the testicle, and these heterosexual endocrine cells may 

 exert under certain circumstances their respective hormonic 

 influences on the body. The opinion that the hermaphrodite 

 state of an individual may be caused by an hermaphrodite 

 state of the endocrine tissue of the gonad without an herma- 

 phroditism of the generative part being necessary, was also 

 held by Tandler and Gross (1913, p. 83). 



We see that two important questions are to be considered 

 in regard to intersexuality in mamimals and man. First, the 

 question has to be experimentally examined whether com- 

 bination of male and female somatic sex characters is really 

 caused bj^ simultaneous presence of gonads of both sexes 

 in the same individual. And secondly, if the first question 

 is to be answered in a positive sense, whether such 

 an "hormonic intersexuality," to adopt an expression of 

 Goldschmidt, is caused by male and female endocrine cells 

 other than generative cells of any stage simultaneously 

 functioning in the same organism. These two great questions 

 will be examined in this chapter. 



