216 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [July 



male, which would equal in its character and consequen- 

 ces any of the miraculous freaks of nature that have ever 

 been recorded or dreamed of ? It is fortunate for the 

 males of all kinds and degrees that such consequences 

 are infinitely improbable, and that such development, if 

 commenced, could not probably advance to any great 

 extent, owing to lack of suitable arrangements for nutri- 

 tion. 



It is evident that this case is not an example of herma- 

 phroditism, in its full sense of possessing in an effective 

 form the organs of both sexes, and being able to perform 

 by turns or simultaneously the functions of both ; though 

 this seems to have been the theory accepted by the 

 ancients who coined this word to designate it, and who 

 left many carefully elaborated representations in their 

 art as to what they meant by it. They knew little or 

 nothing of the anatomical difficulties and absurdities 

 which it implied, any more than they, without knowledge 

 of internal anatomy and physiology, realized the similar 

 absurdities of their schemes, likewise founded on exter- 

 nal form alone, of mermaids, centaurs, and the like. But 

 it is an hermaphroditism, in its first inception and sim- 

 plest conceivable form, in the more modern and reasona- 

 ble sense of a commingling, more or less, of the structures 

 peculiar to both sexes; and it is, again, a first step towards 

 a complete and effective hermaphroditism, if that be 

 possible. 



The animal kingdom seems to have got, in the course 

 of evolution, mostly beyond the primitive grade of her- 

 maphroditism, which is still a prevalent policy in vegeta- 

 tion, where we find it generally but not universally pre- 

 sent. Its very type is the presence of ovaries capable of 

 reproduction, and stamens capable of fertilization, both 

 on the same individual ; and we find this throughout the 

 range of complex individuality in the most familiar plants. 

 In the single flower we find both fertilized and fertiliz- 



