188 CARL G. HARTMAN AND WILLIAM F. HAMILTON 



A study of the internal anatomy proved the animal to be a 

 true hermaphrodite, unique in that up to the time when it was 

 killed, at the age of nine years, it possessed active testicular 

 and ovarian tissue containing both fully formed spermatozoa and 

 large oocytes. A partial dissection is shown in figure 5. On the 

 left side is an ovotestis and a coiled oviduct, but the former was 

 not recognizable as a hermaphroditic gonad until a microscopic 

 examination of sections had been made.' The surface of the 

 gonad is studded with oocytes of every size up to a diameter of 

 20 mm. and looks not unlike the ovary of a normal hen approach- 

 ing the laying season. Several cysts, mostly about the size of 

 the larger oocytes (fig. 5) , are found not only upon the surface of 

 the ovotestis, but also in the very plentiful fat which fills the 

 abdominal cavity. As may be seen from figure 6, the ovotestis 

 is an intimate mixture of ovarian and testicular tissue. Some 

 tubules have degenerated, but most of them are normal and contain 

 ripe spermatozoa. There are follicles and ova in various stages 

 of growth and degeneration. 



On the right side is seen a testis (fig. 5), an elongate body 

 that widens anteriorly where it attaches to the mesentery. There 

 is a thin and straight vas deferens on each side. The testis 

 consists of tubules containing ripe spermatozoa (figs. 7 to 10) 

 with here and there a more or less completely degenerated tubule 

 (fig. 4) . In one portion of the organ there is a group of smaller 

 and more compact tubules which contain epithelial cells within 

 the lumina. This is probably the epididymis. 



3 The microscopical anatomy of the organs was observed from pieces fixed in 

 Bouin's fluid, Flemming's fluid, and 10 per cent neutral formalin. The Bouin 

 material was stained with iron haematoxylin or haematoxylin picrofuchsin; 

 some of the formalin material with Mann's eosin-methyl blue stain. The Flem- 

 ming material was treated twenty-four hours withamixtureof pyroligneous acid 

 and chromic acid, with a view of rendering the stained lipoid insoluble in al- 

 cohol and oil. Frozen sections, cut from some of the formalin fixed material, 

 were subjected to the action of sudan III and osmic acid according to the usual 

 procedures. 



For comparison, the same technique was applied to the gonads of a nearly 

 grown normal pullet, a cockerel of about the same age, a mature rooster, and a 

 two-year-old hen that had the habit of treading other hens. 



