MECHANICS OF THE MASCULINE AND FEMININE 143 



secondary sex traits may be elaborated, which would turn out as 

 valuable in understanding the frictions of the individual, and 

 more concretely, that aspect of it to which pathologists of the 

 mind are tracing so much needless misery and suffering: malad- 

 justed sexuality, expressed and suppressed. Nothing will con- 

 tribute more to harmonious adjustment for these sufferers than 

 recognition of the fact that we are all, more or less, partial 

 hermaphrodites. 



The Functional Hermaphrodite 



The complete or total hermaphrodite we define as the indivi- 

 dual who possesses the reproductive organs of the male and the 

 female, both testes and ovaries. So rare is such a combination 

 in man that for a long time its occurrence was doubted, descrip- 

 tions of it regarded as myth. However, undoubted cases are 

 on record, examined by the most careful of observers, of ovo- 

 testis or mixed reproductive organs. Strangely enough, the his- 

 tory of these cases, shows that at one time the masculine set, and 

 at another the feminine set, will hold sway over the sex traits and 

 functions. Blending does not happen. 



Rare though the true hermaphrodite may be, the partial her- 

 maphrodite is relatively frequent. The mixed ensemble of the 

 directly contrasting type, such as the concomitance of testes with 

 feminine secondary sex traits, or of ovaries with masculine sex 

 traits, have been described from time immemorial as freaks. 

 Occurring even more frequently is the mixed sex ensemble, in 

 which the type of reproductive organs and of secondary sex 

 traits run roughly parallel, emulsified with certain traits of the 

 opposite sex. Physical features of one sex, instincts and mental 

 attitudes of the other co-exist in the same individual by reason 

 of an excess in one direction or a deficiency in another of the 

 internal secretions. The degree of masculine trend in a woman 

 is a crude measure of adrenal domination, the degree of feminine 

 deviation in a man is roughly proportional to the amount of 

 pituitary influences in his make-up. 



Whether one or the other sex tendency will dominate depends 

 upon the quantity of sex hormone divergence from the 

 ideal normal. But also determinant are the environment stimuli 

 provoking excessive or deficient secretory reactions from the other 

 endocrines involved, through the vegetative nervous system. Such 

 especially are the associates of the mixed sex individual. Or- 



