HERMAPHRODITISM. 



695 



In attempting to determine the true sex in 

 such doubtful instances of sexual formation as 

 those which we have been now considering, we 

 are inclined to attribute very little weight to the 

 nature of the sexual desires of the malformed 

 individual, as we have already found Adelaide 

 Preville, the dissection of whose body shewed 

 him to be in reality a man, living for some 

 years before death in the capacity of a wife, 

 and the same remark might be further illus- 

 trated by a reference to Otto's and other cases. 



A species of spurious hermaphroditism simi- 

 lar in character to that which we have just de- 

 scribed in man, is occasionally met with in the 

 males of our domestic quadrupeds, and has 

 been amply illustrated, as it occurs in these 

 animals, by Professor Gurlt in his work on 

 Veterinary Medicine. In instances of this 

 malformation among the animals to which we 

 refer, the hypospadic male penis has usually 

 been found of a tortuous and winding form 

 and of small size. In the cases in which the 

 fissure of the parts extends through the scrotum, 

 a false vagina is seldom formed, as in man, for 

 the scrotum in most quadrupeds lies too remote 

 from the perinaeum, and consequently from the 

 normal situation of thevasrina, for this purpose; 

 but in some examples this division appears to 

 be carried upwards into the perinaeum itself, 

 leaving a vaginal-like opening, in which the 

 urethra terminates. The testicles, as in man, 

 are sometimes retained within the abdomen, 

 and in other instances descend into the scrotum. 

 They are frequently small in size. The mamma 

 or udder seems to be often well developed. 



This variety of hermaphroditic malforma- 

 tion has been met with in the horse by Pen- 

 chenati;* in the he-goat by Haller;f and in the 

 ram by the same author,}; and by Wagner, 

 \Vepfer,|| Stark,H Gurlt,** KauwBoerhaave,ft 

 and A. Cooper.Jt We have seen an excellent 

 specimen of tins malformation in the last- 

 mentioned animal in the museum of Dr. 

 Handyside of Edinburgh. In this instance 

 the internal male organs are all perfect ; the 

 large testicles are situated in the halves of the 

 split scrotum ; the penis is small and imperfo- 

 rate, and a furrow running along its inferior 

 surface is continued backwards and upwards 

 along the perinaeum to within a short distance 

 from the anus, where it leads into a canal, into 

 which the urinary bladder and seminal ducts 

 open. This canal is evidently formed of the 

 dilated pelvic portion of the male urethra; its 

 orifice is comparatively contracted, but corres- 

 ponds in situation with the vulva of the fe- 

 male. We have seen a second similar case in 



* Mem. de 1'Acad. de Turin, torn. v. p. 18. 



t Comment. Soc. Reg. Sc. Getting, torn. i. p. 2, 

 tab. i. 



J Ibid. p. 5, tab. i). 



$ Ephem. Nat. Curios. Cent. i. ii. p. 235. 



[I Miscell. Nat. Curios. Dec. i. An. iii. (1672,) 

 p. 255. 



f Ibid. Dec. iii. Ann. v. vi., p. 669. 



** Lehrbucb, p. 193. 



tt Nov. Comment. Acad. Petropolit. torn. i. 

 (1750,) p. 315, tab. xi. 



tt Catalogue of Guy's Hospital Museum, No. 

 2546. 



the ram in the possession of Professor Dick of 

 the Veterinary School of Edinburgh. 



There is another variety of malformation of 

 the male parts occasionally found in quadru- 

 peds, which is allied in its nature to the pre- 

 ceding. In this second species all the exter- 

 nal male sexual organs are small ; the short 

 penis lies, when not in a state of erection, upon 

 the posterior surface of the enlarged udder, 

 and the imperfectly developed testicles are ge- 

 nerally retained within the abdomen ; or, if 

 they have passed out of that cavity, they are 

 found situated in the substance of the udder. 

 The vasa deferentia, prostate, and Cowper's 

 glands are usually of their normal size and ap- 

 pearance. This imperfect hermaphroditic for- 

 mation appears to be not rare among horses, 

 several instances of it in this animal having 

 been now described by Amaud,* Gohier,f 

 Volmar,J Pallas, Virey,|| and Gurlt.H An- 

 sel mo** and Lecoqtt nav e met with this variety 

 of malformation in the bull ; and Sandford JJ 

 has described an instance in the calf which 

 seems referable to the same head. Gurlt also 

 notices the preparation of an analogous case in 

 the calf, as preserved in the museum at Berlin. 



II. TRUE HERMAPHRODITISM. 



True hermaphroditism exists as the normal 

 type of sexual conformation in several classes 

 of the vegetable and animal kingdom. Almost 

 all phanerogamic plants, with the exception of 

 those included under the class Dioecia, are fur- 

 nished with both male and female reproductive 

 organs, placed either upon the same flower, 

 or, as in the Linnaean class Moncecia, upon 

 different flowers in the same individual. In the 

 class Polygamia various exceptional genera are 

 included, that present indiscriminately upon 

 the same individual, or upon different indivi- 

 duals of the same species, male, female, and 

 hermaphrodite flowers, and which thus form a 

 kind of connecting link between the general 

 hermaphroditic form of phanerogamic vegeta- 

 bles, and the unisexual type of the monoecious 

 flowers, and the dioecious plants. 



From anormalities in developement, these 

 normal conditions of the sexual type in the 

 different members of the vegetable kingdom 

 are occasionally observed to be changed. Thus, 

 among the Dioecia, individual plants are some- 

 times, in consequence of a true malformation, 

 observed to assume an hermaphroditic type of 

 structure ; or, on the other hand, in hermaphro- 

 ditic plants more or fewer flowers are occa- 



* Arnaud sur les Hermaphrodites, p. 282. 



t Mem. et Observ. sur la Chir. et la Med. Vet. 

 torn. i. p. 18. 



$ Archiv. fur Thierheilkunde, Bd. iii. s. 292. 



Beschaft. der Gesellschaft naturforch. Freunde 

 ru Berlin, Bd. iii. s. 296. 



jl Journal Compl. des Sc. Med. torn. xv. p. 140. 



1l Lehrbuch der Path. Anat. Bd. ii. p. 189 , and 

 tab. viii. fig. 6. 



** Mem. del' Acad. des Sc. de Turin, torn. ix. 

 p. 103. fig. 1-3. 



tt Journ. Prat, de Med. Vet. 1827, p. 102. 



jt Med. and Phys. Journal, vol. ii. p. 305, with 

 two drawings. 



$$ Loc. at. p. 191. 



