726 



HERMAPHUODITISM. 



reproductive organs pointed out by the son is 

 in its general principles correct. At the same 

 time we would here remark that we conceive 

 the doctrine would have been founded more on 

 truth if the influence of the nervous branches 

 supplying the different reproductive organs had 

 been taken into account along with that of 

 their arterial vessels, because, as we shall 

 point out when speaking of the causes of her- 

 maphroditism, there appears to be some con- 

 nection between the state of the nervous sys- 

 tem and the degree or condition of sexual de- 

 velopment. 



The consideration of the preceding ana- 

 logies in structure between the male and 

 female organs is interesting in itself, and, as far 

 as relates to our present subject, important in 

 this respect, that it enables us in some degree 

 to understand how it happens that, without any 

 actual monstrous duplicity, we should some- 

 times find, in an organization essentially male, 

 one or more of the genital organs absent and 

 replaced by an imperfect or neutral organ, or 

 by the corresponding organ of the opposite 

 sex, and vice vena ; inasmuch as it shews us 

 that the moulds in which the analogous organs 

 of the two sexes are formed are originally the 

 same. Hence there is no difficulty in con- 

 ceiving that, in the body of the same individual, 

 the primitive structural elements of these parts 

 should occasionally, in one or more points or 

 segments, take on, in the processof development, 

 a different sexual type from that which they 

 assume at other points. Indeed some physi- 

 ologists, as we shall immediately see, deny 

 that the most complete hermaphroditic malfor- 

 mations ever consist of anything except such a 

 want of conformity between the sexual type of 

 different portions of the reproductive appa- 

 ratus. 



If each of the six segments (and we believe 

 that their number might be shewn to be really 

 greater than this,) is thus an independent cen- 

 tre of developmeut in the formation of the 

 sexual apparatus, and is consequently liable 

 also in abnormal cases to have its own parti- 

 cular malformations, and to assume, either 

 alone or along with some of the other seg- 

 ments, a sexual type different from the re- 

 mainder, it is evident that we may have as 

 many varieties of true hermaphroditism, with- 

 out any real duplicity, as it is possible to con- 

 ceive differences of arrangements among these 

 six segments. Again, however, one or more 

 of these segments may preserve from a deve- 

 lopment its original indeterminate or neutral 

 sexual type, while the others are variously 

 formed either upon one or upon both sexual 

 types; or one or more of the segments may, 

 by a true malformation by duplicity, have 

 evolved within them the corresponding organs 

 of the two sexes ; and if we consider the dif- 

 ferent arrangements of double and single 

 sexual parts that might thus occur in the six 

 separate segments, we may gain some idea of 

 the great diversities of structure in the sexual 

 parts that are liable to be met with in instances 

 of true hermaphroditism. 



The above forms, as it appears to us, the 



most sound and rational solution of the nature 

 and origin of many forms of true hermaphro- 

 ditism which physiological science is capable 

 of affording, upon our present limited know- 

 ledge of the laws of development ; and its 

 application to the explanation of the different 

 varieties of lateral, transverse, and vertical her- 

 maphroditism is so obvious as only to be 

 required to be alluded to. It offers to us, 

 however, no insight into the probable origin of 

 those varieties of double hermaphroditism in 

 which there is an actual co-existence upon one 

 or upon both sides of the body, or, in other 

 words, in the same segment of the sexual 

 apparatus, of both the corresponding male and 

 female organs. We can only refer all such 

 instances to the laws which regulate the occa- 

 sional production of local duplicities in diffe- 

 rent other organs of single bodies, and at the 

 same time confess our present ignorance of 

 what these laws are. We know that various 

 individual muscles, nerves, &c. are not unfre- 

 quently found double, and that in the internal 

 organs of the body examples of duplicity in 

 individual viscera are occasionally, though 

 rarely, observed in the heart, tongue, trachea, 

 oesophagus, intestinal canal, Sec. In the 

 several organs composing the reproductive 

 apparatus, instances of similar duplicity would 

 seem to be even more common than among 

 any other of the viscera. Examples of three 

 mammse upon the same person are mentioned 

 by Bartholin,* Borelli.f Lanzoni,} Drejer, 

 Robert,|| Petrequin,1f and others;** and cases 

 in which the number of these organs was in- 

 creased to four have been recorded by Faber,ft 

 Gardeux.J]; Cabroli, Lamy,|||| Tiedemann,f f 

 Champion,*** Sinclair,^ K. Lee,Ul and 

 Moore. An instance in which five mam- 

 mje even existed upon the same woman is re- 

 ported to have been seen by Gorre.|||||| Valen- 

 tin 1[f1T and Gunther**** have recorded sup- 

 posed cases of duplicity in the male penis; and 

 Arnaudtftt nas related an example of an ana- 

 logous malformation in the female clitoris. 

 WeberJttt met with a double vesicula seminalis 



* Acta Mcd. Hafn. torn. iii. obs. 93. 



t Observ. Rar. cent. i. p. 55. 



t Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. ii. Ann. v.'obs. 55. 



$ Arch. Gen. de Med. torn. xvii. p. 88. 



I] Jnurn. Gen. de Med. torn. c. p. 57. 



f Gazette Medicale for April,) 1837. Three 

 distinct mamma; in a father, and in his three sons 

 and two daughters. 



** Diet, des Sc. Med. torn, xxxiv. p. 529. 



tt Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. i. Ann. ii. p. 346. 



}$ Journ. de Mcd. de Corvisart, torn. ix. p. 378. 



Obs. Anat. vii. 



flll Fantoni Anat. p. 267. 



I1 1 Zeitschrift fur Physiologic, Bd.v. s. 110. One 

 case with three, and three with four nipples. In 

 one case the malformation was hereditary. 



"* Diet, des Sc. Medic, t. xxx. p. 377. See 

 also p. 378. 



ttt Statistical Account of Scotland, xix. p. 288. 



jjt London Med.-Chinirg.Trans. vol. xxi. p. 266. 



*" Lancet for February 24, 1838. 



i. Diet, des Sc. Med. torn, xxxiv. p. 529. 



II H Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. iii. Ann. iii. obs. 77. 



**" Cohen vom Stein, Halle, 1774, p. 107. 



tttt Mem. de Chir. torn. i. p. 374. 



Jttt Salzburg Medicinische Zeitung, 1811, s. 188. 



