84 ALFEED GIBBS BOURNE. 



In view of our present knowledge of the undiflFerentiated 

 character of the primitive generative cells, such cases of herma- 

 phrodite glands, whether occurring as the rule in a species or 

 as an abnormality in an individual, acquire a special interest. 



The undifferentiated primitive ova being potentially either 

 ova or spermatozoa, it is interesting to find that in auy one 

 gland some have become ova and some spermatozoa ; it is in 

 fact what we might expect to occur from time to time. 



Among the Invertebrata which exhibit the hermaphrodite 

 condition we have various stages differing in the completeness 

 with which the hermaphroditism is expressed. We may dis- 

 tinguish between forms where the glands are completely 

 separate, those in which male and female portions remain 

 connected as regions of one and the same gland, and lastly, 

 forms in which the male and female elements are more com- 

 pletely mixed, where ova and spermatozoa develop from 

 contiguous cells of a single follicle. In the ovotestis of the 

 frog here recorded certain follicles of the gland have become 

 ovarian, others testicular, ova and spermatozoa both being well 

 developed. 



The specimen presented a well-developed ovary upon the right 

 side, while upon the left was the organ in question. Both 

 oviducts were normally developed. Unfortunately the speci- 

 men was cut about before it came into my hands, and I was 

 unable to observe any vasa efferentia connected with the 

 testicular portion of the ovotestis. Both ureters presented the 

 normal female arrangement. 



The ovotestis (PI. IV, figs. 1 and 2) was completely ovarian 

 in its posterior half. There was no special line of separation 

 between ovarian and testicular portions, but as may be seen 

 from the figures, there was a complete intermixing of the two 

 elements. The testicular portion was rounded, and tended to 

 assume the shape of a normal testis, it contained motile sper- 

 matozoa. Although the specimen was in a bad state of pro- 

 tracted in ' Schwalbe and Hofmann's Jahresbericht,' vol. v, 1878, p. 345. Also 

 Brock, "Beitrage zur Anatomic u. Histologie der Gesclilecbtsorgaue der 

 Knochenfische," in 'Morph. Jahrbucb,' Bd. iv, 1878. 



