362 



The Journal of Heredity 



On dissection the liver was seen to 

 be of great size, weighing 340 grammes. 

 and studded with rounded areas of 

 what proved to be caseating tuber- 

 culous material. The intestinal tract 

 was also the seat of tubercular lesions. 

 Lying in the situation of the ovary was 

 a rounded mass, seven by four centi- 

 meters in size, with its purple surface 

 mapped with raised yellow areas. This 

 mass weighed 52.5 grammes, and in- 

 corporated in its dorsal aspect there 

 was a body exactly resembling a testis 

 whilst a similar body was situated in 

 the equivalent position on the other 

 side of the body. These testis-like 

 bodies measured three and a half by 

 two centimeters, and had even outlines 

 and surfaces. The adrenals were larger 

 and more prominent than is usual and 

 there was nothing noteworthy about 

 the thyroid or pituitary. On the left 

 a thin straight oviduct could be traced, 

 its diameter at its caudal widest part 

 was three millimeters, and paired vasa 

 deferentia were clearly discernable. 



On sectioning, the tumor mass 

 proved to be an ovary practically com- 

 pletely destroyed by tuberculosis ; the 

 testes-like bodies were seen to be testes 

 in a phase of reduced activity. The 

 seminiferous tubules were precisely 

 similar to those of the testis of a nor- 

 mal cock, consisting of a well-defined 

 basement membrane lined by seminal 

 epithelium showing every stage of 

 spermatogenesis. They differed from 

 a very active testis in that they were 

 smaller in size and showed fewer 

 mitotic figures ; ripe spermatozoa were 

 present, but not in large numbers. The 

 intertubular tissue, as in the case of a 

 normal cock, was present in small 

 amount and consisted of connective 



tissue only ; no luteal cells were to be 

 found. Only one Wolffian body was 

 sectioned, it resembled an epididymis 

 rather than a parovarium. 



The bird described had been, up to 

 the age of three and a half years, an 

 unremarkable hen ; she had laid many 

 eggs and had raised many of her own 

 offspring. Her history was intimately 

 known, for her owner kept but few 

 birds. In the autumn of 1920 she be- 

 gan to suffer from disease of the 

 ovary ; the ovarian tissue as progres- 

 sively destroyed, and the effects of this 

 pathological castration were seen. But 

 the conditions which were created were 

 those favorable for the differentiation 

 and growth of spermatic tissue. New 

 sex-cords developed from the germinal 

 epithelium and spermatic tissue was 

 differentiated both in the left gonad 

 and also in the atrophic right. The 

 bird became anatomically equipped to 

 function as a male, for with the de- 

 velopment of the testes the Wolffian 

 ducts were stimuluated to form func- 

 tional vasa deferentia and the cloacal 

 apparatus of the male was developed. 

 Synchronously with the replacement of 

 ovarian by spermatic tissue the oviduct 

 underwent atrophy. The bird func- 

 tioned as a male and actually became 

 the father of chickens. Under these 

 circumstances, in which a "determined" 

 female becomes a "somatic" male as a 

 result of a definite change in its meta- 

 bolism, it would be expected that the 

 proportion of the sexes among its off- 

 spring would be one male to two 

 females. Of the two chickens one is 

 a male, the other a female ; they have 

 been mated, and their offspring are 

 typical Buff Orpington chickens. 



