720 



IIERMAPHROniTISM. 



of the testicles in the abdomen, &c. In the 

 same way, when the fema'e assumes the secon- 

 dary characters of the male, it is either, first, 

 when by original malformation its own ovaries 

 and sexual organs are so defective in structure 

 as not to be capable of taking a part in the 

 function of reproduction, and of exercising 

 that influence over the general organization 

 whicli this faculty imparts to them; or, 

 secondly, when in the course of age the ovaries 

 have ceased to be capable of performing the 

 action allotted to them in the reproductive 

 process. In both of these cases we observe 

 the powers of the female organization, now 

 that its capabilities of performing its particular 

 office in the continuation of the species are 

 wanting or lost, expend themselves in perfecting 

 its own individual system, and hence the ani- 

 mal gradually assumes more or fewer of those 

 secondary sexual characters that belong to the 

 male. 



We do not consider it subversive of the pre- 

 ceding view to qualify it with the two follow- 

 ing admissions, 1st, that, owing to the ener- 

 gies of the female system being so strongly 

 and constantly directed towards the reproduc- 

 tive organs, and the accomplishment of those 

 important functions which these organs have to 

 perform in the economy of the species, the 

 general characters of the species may be de- 

 veloped in her body in a degree less than they 

 otherwise would be, or than actually consti- 

 tutes the proper standard of the species ; and, 

 2dly, in consequence of the peculiarities of 

 the sexual functions of the female, some of 

 the individual organs of her system, as the 

 mammae, are evolved in a degree greater than 

 is consonant with the standard characters of the 

 species. At the same time we would here 

 remark that the occasional enlarged condition 

 of the mammas in hermaphrodites in whom the 

 male sexual type of structure predominates, 

 (as in the examples of spurious male herma- 

 phrodites that have been quoted from Sir E. 

 Home, and in other instances mentioned by 

 Renauldin, Julien, Petit, llullier, and others 

 in the human subject, as well as in numerous 

 cases among hermaphrodite quadrupeds,) would 

 almost seem to shew that the full development 

 of the mammary glands is a character proper 

 to the species in general, rather than one pecu- 

 liar to the female system alone. In males, 

 also, who are perfect in their reproductive 

 organs and functions, the mamma; are some- 

 times observed to be developed in so complete 

 a manner as to be capable of secreting milk, 

 forming what may be regarded as one of the 

 slightest approaches towards hermaphroditic 

 malformation in the male organization;* and 



* The secretion of milk in the mammary glands 

 of the male is occasionally observed amongst our 

 domestic quadrupeds. See Gurlt's Pathologischen 

 Anatomic der Haus-Saugthiere, Bd. ii. s. 188 ; 

 Blumenbach in the Hanoversich Magazin for 1787 ; 

 and Home in Comp. Anat. iii. p. 328. Among 

 the recorded instances and observations upon it in 

 man we may refer to Paullini, Cynographia, p. 52 ; 

 Schachcr, De Lactc Virorum et Virginuin, Lcipz. 



the mamma; of the infants of both sexes not 

 unfrequently contain a lactiform fluid at birth. 



In some instances of hermaphroditic mal- 

 formation the total form and configuration of 

 the body have been alleged to present not only 

 a general tendency towards the physical se- 

 condary characters of the opposite sex, or to 

 exhibit in a permanent state the neutral con- 

 dition existing before puberty, but different 

 individual parts of it have been occasionally 

 conceived to be developed after a different 

 sexual type. Thus, for instance, we have al- 

 ready mentioned in regard to Hubert Jean 

 Pierre, that the upper half of the body of this 

 individual seemed formed after the female, and 

 the lower half after the male type, the larynx 

 and mamma? being quite feminine, the face 

 shewing no appearance of beard, and the arms 

 being delicate and finely rounded, while the 

 pelvis was narrow, and the thighs were marked 

 and angled as in man. In a case described by 

 Schneider,* the reverse held true, the bust 

 being male with a strong beard and large 

 thorax, and the pelvis being large and distinctly 

 female. A more mixed combination of the 

 secondary sexual characters has been already 

 described as existing in the cases detailed by 

 Ricco, Mayer, Arnaud, Bouillaud, &c. 



One side of the body has been sometimes 

 observed to be apparently formed in one or 

 more of its parts on a sexual type different 

 from that of the same parts on the opposite 

 side. Girald, in his Topography of Ireland,-)- 

 mentions a reputed female, who had the right 

 side of the face bearded like that of a man, 

 and the left smooth like that of a woman. 

 Mr. King J has described an interesting in- 

 stance of hermaphroditic malformation in an 

 individual whose general character was mas- 

 culine, but with the pelvis large and wide ; 

 the left testicle only had descended into the 

 groin, and the mamma of this side was small 

 comparatively to that of the opposite or right 

 side. 



In a hind mentioned by Mr. IIay, and 

 which, he believed, had never produced any 

 young, one of the ovaries on dissection after 

 death was found to be scirrhous. The animal 

 had one horn resembling that of a three years- 

 old stag on the same side with the diseased 

 ovary ; there was no horn on the opposite side. 

 Bomare|| has given a similar case in the same 



1742; Sinnibaldiis, Geneanthrop. torn. iv. p. 456; 

 Alex. Benedictus, Anatom. Corp. Hum. lih. iii. 

 ). 595; Winslow, Anatomy, vol. ii. p. 214; 



p. 57 ; Franklin, First Expedition to the Polar 

 Seas, (Lon-)on,1823,) p. 157. 



* Konp's J-dhrbuch dcr Staatsarzneikunde, Bd. x. 

 s. 134. 



t Topog. Hiberniae, in Camden's Angl.&c.(1603), 

 part ii. p. 724. 



} London Med. Repository for 1820, vol. xiii. 

 p. 87. 



Linnxan Transactions, vol. iii. p. 356. 



II Journ. de Phys. torn. vi. p. 506. 



