TABOO AND GENETICS 51 



the influence of a predisposition of the female 

 tj^pe in the fertihzed egg, before the transfusion 

 began. There is no absolutely convincing mam- 

 malian evidence of the complete upset of this 

 predisposition, so all one can say is that it is 

 theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, 

 sometimes called " intersexes," are common 

 enough. In birds and insects, where the material 

 is less expensive and experimentation simpler, 

 males have been produced from female-pre- 

 disposed fertilized eggs and vice versa, as we 

 shall see in the next chapter. 



Dr Bell (2, pp. i33f.) points out that the 

 so-called human " hermaphrodites " are simply 

 partial reversals of the sex type from that 

 originally fixed in the fertihzed egg. As has 

 been remarked earlier in these pages, there is 

 rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher 

 animals — i.e., cases of two functional sexes in 

 the same individual. In fact, the pathological 

 cases in the human species called by that name 

 are probably not capable of reproduction at all.* 



*Noie on human hermaphroditism : This subject has been 

 treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, 

 Alienist and Neurologist for August, igi^, and New York 

 Medical Journal for Oct. 23, 1915. It has been claimed that 

 both human and higher mammalian " hermaphrodites " have 

 actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, absolute cer- 

 tainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human 

 beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack 

 of scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete func- 

 tional hermaphroditism in the human species could be estab- 

 lished beyond question, it would indicate that the male secre- 

 tory balance in man does not inhibit the female organs to 



