396 INTERNAL SECRETIONS 



and for inhibiting the growth of the spurs. On the other hand 

 the lateral bodies behaved, as to hormonic activity, Hke a 

 testicle. Since the quantity of male hormones produced 

 evidently only just attained to the efficient minimum, a 

 seasonal diminution of hormonic activity necessarily caused 

 a corresponding disappearance of maleness. 



Observations wholly identical with those of Goodale were 

 made by Zawadowsky (1922) on five castrated hens which 

 assumed male plumage; development of a male comb and of 

 decidedly male sexual instincts was observed. There was 

 in every case a development of the right rudimentary 

 ovary. But this body is evidently not only a masculinizing, 

 but in a certain measure also a feminizing factor, since in some 

 of the cases observed female plumage was reassumed, as in the 

 experiments of Goodale. On the other hand, it seems, accord- 

 ing to Zawadowsky, that sometimes even the regenerating 

 left ovary can have both a feminizing and a masculinizing effect, 

 as observed in a bird which after castration assumed male 

 plumage and growth of spurs, but subsequently assumed female 

 plumage and showed a male development of the comb. No 

 ova were present in the regenerated left ovary. 



The above-described observations of Goodale, Pezard and 

 Zawadowsky give full support to the hormonic theory of inter- 

 sexuality. But do these observations tell in favour of the sex 

 gland, or in favour of some other organ of internal secretion 

 conditioning intersexuality ? First, these observations show 

 clearly that generative cells are not necessarily involved in con- 

 ditioning intersexuality. Secondly, they render it very probable 

 that the adrenals are not involved in masculinization, since no 

 adrenal disturbance of any kind was observed. Thirdly, the 

 observations suggest that cells originating from the primary 

 sexual cords may have a masculinizing influence; if the 

 interstitial cells, as was suggested by Ruhaschkin (see p. 118), 

 really originate from the primary sexual cords, we have in the 

 above-mentioned observations a very strong support for the 

 theory of the endocrine function of the interstitial cells. ^ 



When discussing intersexuality in man we insisted that 



^ Lately Benoit (1923, 1924) has stated that the right organ developing 

 after early ovariotomy may reveal the typical structure of a testicle \vith 

 spermatogenesis though an incomplete one. If Benoit's statement is to be 

 understood in the sense that it is always so, then the conclusions as drawn 

 above would be naturally not justified. 



