66 QUARTERLY' JOURNAL. 



These are the only free martins I can ascertain on sufficient 

 evidence to have propagated, while there is abundant evidence, 

 equally good, of a very considerable number which had been 

 faithfully tried and proved barren. 



It would hence appear that the rule is, singular as it may seem, 

 that the female twin is unfruitful, yet in a few rare instances she 

 is capable of breeding. 



It becomes then an inquiry not of physiological curiosity alone, 

 but of practical value, to learn upon what the barrenness depends, 

 and how the fruitfulness or un fruitful n ess of the calf may be 

 known in early life. 



It is established with tolerable certainty, that the free martin 

 when incapable of propagating is anatomically deficient, t)r 

 deformed in some of the organs of generation ; and these deficien- 

 cies or deformities veryi plainly and with a great degree of uni- 

 formity, modify her external form and appearance. We accord- 

 ingly find heifers of this description coarse and masculine in struc- 

 ture • and in the head and horns especially they exhibit a very 

 marked approach to those of the ox ; the teats are smaller than 

 is usual in the heifer : she manifests no propensity to breed. The 

 external appearance of the vagina is the same as in other cows. 



Some of these distinctions are of course not developed until she 

 has arrived at the age of bearing. The internal structure is 

 marked by still greater differences ; these, however, are not to be 

 seen except by post mortem examination. 



The first, and so far as I know, the only scientific investigation, 

 was made by the accurate and distinguished anatomist John Hun- 

 ter. He examined three of these free martins, and found in them 

 all a greater or less deviation from the form of the female, and the 

 addition of some of the organs peculiar to the male ; they w^ere in 

 fact hermaphrodites. 



The subjoined description of one of them is taken from the 

 Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LXIX. p. 289. 



" Mr. Abuthnot's free martin, seven years old. The external 

 parts were rather smaller than in the cow\ The vagina* passed 

 on as in the cow, to the opening of the urethra^-\ and then 



• Vagina is a technical term ; the common name I believe is bearing, 

 t Urethra is the passage for the urine from the bladder. 



