684 



HERMAPHRODITISM 



HERMAS 



in one organism, as in most flowering plants, or in 

 many lower animals, such as earthworm, leech, or 

 snail. The name is derived from the fable of the 

 union into one of the bodies of Hermaphroditus, 

 son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and the nymph 

 Salmacis (see Ovid's Metamorphoses, iv. 347). 

 The combination of two sexes in one occurs, how- 

 ever, in various degrees, the bisexuality being 

 sometimes very intimate, and in other cases only 

 superficial, (a) It is probable that many animals 

 e.g. frogs, which are unisexual in adult life pass 

 through a period of embryonic, hermaphroditism, 

 early nutrition having much to do with the more 

 or less complete predominance of one sex over the 

 other. ( b ) Among fishes and amphibians and else- 

 where, casual or abnormal hermaphroditism is not 

 infrequent, the animal having for instance an 

 ovary on one side and a testis on the other, (c) 

 In other cases only one organ is developed, and one 

 sex emphatically predominates in the organism, 

 not, however, without hints of the other. This 

 partial hermaphroditism is usually an exception, 

 as when a butterfly has its wings coloured like 

 those of the female on one side, like those of the 

 male on the other. Frogs and toads also illustrate 

 curious combinations, which do not, however, con- 

 flict with the predominance of the egg-producing 

 or the sperm-producing function as the case may 

 be. (d) An apparent, but in reality false herma- 

 phroditism may result in the higher animals where, 

 by malformation or rudimentary development of 

 the external reproductive organs, a mammal in 

 reality quite female may look like a male, or vice 

 versa. 



( e ) Normal adult hermaphroditism, where egg- 

 producing and sperm-producing functions go on 

 (usually at different times), is rare among higher 

 animals occurring in Chryophrys and Serranus 

 among fishes, in the hagfish Myxine, and in all 

 the Tunicata. It is, however, of frequent occur- 

 rence in the invertebrate series among snails, 

 bivalves, cirripedes, worm-types, crelenterates, and 

 sponges. It is most familiar in our common 

 flowering plants, which are often called mono- 

 clinous or perfect. 



Hermaphroditism may be more or less intimate. 

 Thus, as an entire plant an Arum is hermaphrodite, 

 with female flowers below and male flowers above ; 

 but the hermaphroditism is more intimate in a 

 buttercup, where each flower bears male and female 

 organs, or yet more intimate in an orchid, where 

 stamens and 'carpels are united. So a leech, with 

 ovaries quite distinct from the testes, is less 

 intimately hermaphrodite than a snail, where 

 within the same small organ both kinds of sex 

 elements are produced. 



The male and female elements, whether in 

 phanerogam or invertebrate, are rarely, if ever, 

 matured at the same time. Such a ' want of time- 

 keeping' is called in botanical language dicho- 

 gamy, and is one of the conditions which tend to 

 prevent self-fertilisation. Protandrous dichogamy, 

 where the stamens take the lead, is much com- 

 moner than protogynous dichogamy, where the 

 carpels mature first. This is also true of animals, 

 and is more marked when the hermaphroditism is 

 intimate, as in snail or oyster. The hagfish seems 

 to be predominantly male till it attains a certain 

 size ; and so in the curious thread-worm Angio- 

 stomum and in the crustacean Cymothoidse the 

 organs are first male and then after a while female. 

 In the cirripeds and Myzostomata, the majority 

 of which are bisexual, pigmy or complemental 

 males are in some cases associated with the herma- 

 phrodites, or in the case of the barnacles ( in which 

 separate sexes sometimes occur ) even with some of 

 the females. 



Alike in plants and in animals, though herma- 



phroditism is common, self-fertilisation is rare. It 

 does occur in not a few common flowers, and in 

 tapeworms, some flukes, and a few other animals, 

 but is without doubt exceptional. 



Hermaphroditism is commonest in sluggish 

 animals (e.g. flat- worms, tardigrades, snails), or 

 in fixed animals (e.g. sponges, corals, Polyzoa, 

 bivalves, Tunicates), or in parasitic animals with 

 a plethora of nutrition and little exertion (e.g. 

 flukes, tapeworms, leeches, Mvzostomata ). 

 1 As to its origin, hermaphroditism is probably the 

 lower, more primitive condition from which that of 

 unisexuality has been in the majority of cases 

 evolved. In alternating rhythms eggs and sperms 

 were produced, gradually the areas of their respec- 

 tive formation were restricted, by-and-by one 

 tendency predominated in the organism, and 

 separate males and females were established. If 

 embryonic hermaphroditism be, as some believe, of 

 general occurrence, then most organisms recapitu- 

 late this evolution of separate sex in their indi- 

 vidual life-history. If it be allowed that herma- 

 phroditism was the primitive condition, then the 

 cases now existing indicate either persistence or 

 reversion. See EMBRYOLOGY, REPRODUCTION, 

 SEX ; and Geddes and Thomson, The Evolution of 

 Sex (Lond. 1889). For aberrant hermaphroditism 

 in human adults, see Todd and Bowman's Cyclop, 

 of Anat. and Physiol., vol. ii. 



Hernias, as the author of the well-known early 

 treatise called The Shepherd, is usually reckoned 

 one of the Apostolic Fathers (q.v. ). The work 

 is quoted as inspired by Irenseus and Clement of 

 Alexandria. To the Montanist Tertullian it is 

 ' that apocryphal Shepherd of the adulterers ; ' but 

 Eusebius, while he places it in his list of spurious 

 or rejected books, witnesses that it had been read 

 publicly in the churches. And indeed the 'com- 

 mandments ' were read here and there in the 

 Eastern Church from the 4th to the 15th century, 

 though nowhere with the honour of Scripture. The 

 date and the authorship are both in dispute. The 

 suggestion first advanced by Origen, in the 3d 

 century, that the Hermas mentioned in Romans 

 might be the author, may be dismissed in company 

 with the assertion of the Ethiopia scribe that 

 Hermas was none other than St Paul. The state- 

 ment of the writer of the Muratorian Fragment 

 has been generally accepted, that Hermas was 

 the brother of Pius I., Bishop of Rome about the 

 middle of the 2d century, and that he wrote 

 during his brother's episcopate ; but the form 

 of church government that appears in The Shep- 

 herd is against this tradition, as perhaps is also 

 the jealousy the writer displays of those who are 

 ecclesiastically his superiors ; and moreover the 

 treatise was already in general use considerably 

 before the end of the century. From these and 

 other considerations there has been in recent years 

 a tendency to throw the date back to the beginning 

 of the 2d century, and to identify a certain Clement 

 who is mentioned with Clement (q.v.) of Rome. 

 This last point is a mere assumption, but in favour 

 of the earlier date is most of the internal evidence, 

 as well as the fact that the book was read in public 

 an honour restricted in every other instance to 

 writings accepted as those of the Apostles or their 

 immediate disciples ; against it are the allusions 

 to the persecutions suffered by the Christians, the 

 condition of the Roman Church, and the absence 

 of all reference to Judaising Christians. Finally, 

 Donaldson's theory that the name Hermas is ficti- 

 tious, and the whole work an allegory, appears to 

 be based on a misconception. The treatise, which 

 is divided into three parts visions, commandments, 

 and similitudes contains little of positive dog- 

 matic teaching, but is an interesting monument of 

 early Christian thought ; it was intended primarily 



