CERTAIN ABNORMALITIES IN THE COMMON FROG. 83 



On Certain Abnormalities in the Common Prog 

 (Rana temporaria). 



1. The Occurrence of an Ovotestis. 



2. Abnormalities of the Vertebral Column. 



By 



Alfred Giblbs Bourne, B.Sc, liond.. 



University Scholar in Zoology, and Assistant to the Jodrell Professor, 

 University College, London. 



With Plate IV. 



1. On the occurrence of an Ovotestis : 



While much has been written, especially by human auato- 

 tomists concerning hermaphroditism, and numerous cases 

 have been described as abnormalities in which the generative 

 organs in the one sex, from imperfect or abnormal development, 

 approach the condition of those in the other sex, little is known 

 concerning the existence of true hermaphrodite glands in the 

 Vertebrata. 



Two or three cases have been described of the existence of 

 both ovary and testis in man. In one described by Heppner, of 

 St. Petersburg,^ small ova in Graafian follicles were found in 

 one pair of glands and spermatic cells and seminal tubules in 

 the other. 



There are, however, certain fishes which normally possess 

 hermaphrodite glands- (Serranus scriba, S. cabrilla, S. 

 hepatus, and Chrysophrys aurata). 



• " Ueber d. wahren Hermaphrodismus beim Menscben," in ' Miiller's 

 Arch.,' 1870, p. 676. 



* See Dufosse, " De rHermapbrodisnie chez certains vertebres," in ' Ann. 

 Sci. Nat.,' Ser. 4, "Zot '.," torn, v, ISoG. See also a memoir in Polish ex- 



