HERMAPIIRODITISM. 



697 



A well-marked example of lateral herma- 

 phroditism among the Crustacea has been re- 

 corded by Dr. Nicholls.* In a lobster (Axta- 

 cus murinus) he found on the right side of the 

 body a female sexual aperture in its normal 

 situation at the root of the third leg, and con- 

 nected with a regularly formed oviduct, full of 

 ova. On the left side of the animal there was 

 a male sexual aperture placed, as usual, at the 

 root of the fifth leg, and connected internally 

 with an equally perfect testicle and spermatic 

 cord. The general external conformation of 

 the animal corresponded with its internal sexual 

 structure, the right lateral half of the body 

 presenting all the secondary characters and pe- 

 culiarities of the female, and the left all those of 

 the male ; so that if split from head to tail, (to 

 use Dr. Nicholls' mode of expression,) the animal 

 would have been perfectly female on the right 

 side, and perfectly male on the left. 



The investigations of Sir E. Homef led phy- 

 siologists some years ago to believe that among 

 Fishes lateral hermaphroditism constituted the 

 natural type of sexual formation in the genera 

 Myxine and Petromyzon ; but the later and 

 more accurate observations of RathkeJ have 

 shewn that these species are strictly bisexual, 

 and that the opposite opinion had arisen from 

 the kidneys of the female having been mistaken 

 for the male testicles. Various instances, how- 

 ever, are on record of fishes, known to be nor- 

 mally bisexual, presenting from abnormal deve- 

 lopement a lateral hermaphroditic structure, or a 

 roe on one side, and a milt on the other. Such 

 an hermaphroditic malformation has been met 

 with in the genera Salrno^ Gadus,\\ and Cy- 

 prinus^ and in the Merlangus vulgaris,** Aci- 

 penser huso,-\-\- and J&SOJT liicius.H 



Of lateral hermaphroditism in Birds, we have 



* Phil. Trans, for 1730, no. 413, vol. xxxvi. p. 

 290, with drawings of the animal, and of its repro- 

 ductive organs. 



t Phil. Trans, for 1823. Art. xii. 



$ Bemerkungen ueber den Innern Bau der 

 Pricke, s. 119. See also additional observations by 

 the same author in Miiller's Archiv fur Anatomic, 

 &c. for 1836. Heft. ii. s. 171. The older error of 

 Cavolini, who supposed that he had detected two 

 ovaries and two testicles in the Perca marina and 

 Labrtu channa, (Sulla Generazioue dei Peschi et dei 

 Granchi, Nap. 1787,) had been previously shewn 

 by Rudolphi to depend upon his having mistaken 

 undeveloped portions of the ovaries for testicles. 

 (Schweigger's Skeletlose Thiere. s. 204; and Ab- 

 handlungen. Konig. Akad. der Wissenschaft zu 

 Berlin, 1825. p. 48.) 



$ Commercium Litter. Norim. 1734. Hebd. 39. 



|| Pipping, Vetensk. Akad. nya Handl. (1800.) 

 Bd. xxi. s. 33. tab. i. fig. 1. Leuwenhoeck, Ex- 



rrim. et Contempl. p. 150. Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. 

 Ann. i. obs. 125. Du Hamel, Traite des Poissons, 

 Part ii. p. 130. 



U Alischer, Breslau. Sammlung. 1720, p. 645; 

 Morand, Mem. de I'Acad. des Sc. 1737. p. 72. 

 Schwalbe, Commer. Lit. Norimb. 1734. p. 305. 



** Marchant, Mem. de I'Acad. des Sc. 1737. p. 

 12. Baster, Opusc. Subcesiva, torn. i. p. 138. 



tf Pallas, Reise durch Russe, &c. Theil. ii. s. 

 341. 



Jt Reaumur, Mem. de I'Acad. 1737. p. 51. 

 Starke, Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. iii. ann. vii. and viii. 

 obs. 109. 



one instance recorded by Bechstein,* in a 

 chicken that had a testicle on the right side of 

 the body, and an imperfect reniform ovary on 

 the left. The external appearance of the bird 

 presented a mixture of the characters of the two 

 sexes. 



Rudolphi has referred to a second and more 

 ancient example of lateral hermaphroditism in 

 the hen, mentioned by Heide.f The case, en- 

 titled by the author " galli qui putabatur her- 

 maphroditus anatome rudis, v is so imperfectly 

 detailed as not to be entitled to much attention. 



We have ourselves been fortunate enough to 

 meet with two domestic fowls that presented in 

 their sexual organization examples of lateral her- 

 maphroditism. In the first of these cases (Jig- 

 290) the female sexual organs were placed on the 



Fig. 290. 



left side of the body, and the ovary (a) and ovi- 

 duct (6) were in all respects apparently natu- 

 rally formed. On the right side, a male vas 

 deferens (</), of about half the normal length, 



* Naturgeschichte der Voegel, &c. Bd. ii, s. 1219, 

 (1807). 



t Anatome Mytuli : subjecta est Centuria Obscr. 

 Amster. 1684, p. 193, obs. 95. 



