722 



HERMAPHRODITISM. 



however, in all parts to the female form, the 

 right antenna and the wings on the opposite or 

 left side were distinctly female, while the left 

 antenna and right wings were entirely male, 

 the latter being only somewhat larger than in 

 male insects, and the colours brighter than in 

 the female. In a Bombyx castrensis alluded 

 to by Westwood, the wings on the right side, 

 and the antennae and abdomen of the left, were 

 those of a male, while the left wing, right an- 

 tennae, and right side of the abdomen were 

 those of a female. 



GENERAL SUMMARY WITH REGARD TO THE 

 NATURE OF HERMAPHRODITIC MALFORMA- 

 TIONS. 



1 . Of the varieties of spurious hermaphro- 

 ditism. On some of these varieties it is un- 

 necessary for us to dwell here. The first 

 species of spurious male hermaphroditism, or 

 that arising from extroversion of the urinary 

 bladder, is elaborately discussed elsewhere 

 (see BLADDER); and two others, namely, the 

 second female species consisting of prolapsus 

 of the uterus, and the second male consisting of 

 an adhesion of the penis to the scrotum, seem 

 both referable to the head rather of disease than 

 of original malformation. This latter indeed ap- 

 pears in all probability only an effect or result of 

 adhesive inflammatory action in theaffected parts 

 during embryonic or foetal life. Both of the two 

 remaining forms of spurious hermaphroditism, 

 viz. those consisting of hypospadic fissure of the 

 urethra, scrotum, and perinaeum in the male, 

 and of abnormal magnitude of the clitoris in the 

 female, seem readily explicable upon the doc- 

 trine of arrestment and anormality in the deve- 

 lopment of the malformed parts. 



We have already described at sufficient 

 length the process of development of the dif- 

 ferent copulative organs, and have shewn that 

 those various degrees of hypospadic malforma- 

 tion which constitute the common form of 

 spurious hermaphroditism in the male, may be 

 traced to arrestment of this process at various 

 periods or stages of its progress. And we may 

 here remark that the earlier this arrestment 

 occurs, the distinction of the true sexual type of 

 the malformed organs will always be the less 

 marked, because the younger the embryo, and, 

 on a similar principle, the lower we descend in 

 the scale of animal existence, we find the dif- 

 ferences between the organs of the two sexes 

 proportionally the less pronounced, until at 

 last we arrive at that primitive type in which 

 these organs present altogether a common, neu- 

 tral, or indeterminate character. 



We have also already shewn that at a certain 

 early stage of the development of the female 

 organs, the female clitoris holds the same, or 

 nearly the same relatively larger size to the 

 whole embryo as the penis of the male, and 

 that so far we may consider the occasional 

 occurrence of spurious hermaphroditism from 

 magnitude of the clitoris, and its resemblance 

 in this respect to the male organ, as a perma- 

 nent condition of a type of embryonic structure 

 that is normally of a temporary or transitory 

 existence only. But besides this permanence 



of the embryonic type of the clitoris, we must 

 farther, in all the more complete instances of 

 spurious female hermaphroditism, admit an 

 excess of development in the malformed 

 external sexual parts, and more particularly in 

 the line of the median reunion of the two 

 primitive lateral halves or divisions of these 

 parts. In this way the vagina (a remnant in the 

 female of the primitive perinseal cleft or 

 fissure) is often in such cases more or less con- 

 tracted and closed, so much so indeed in some 

 instances as to leave only, as in the male, a 

 small canal common to the genital and urinary 

 passages. If the median junction is extended 

 still farther, this canal comes also to imitate the 

 male urethra in this respect, that it is united or 

 shut up below in such a way as to be carried 

 onward to a greater or less length, and in a 

 more or less perfect condition along the under 

 surface of the enlarged clitoris ; and occasion- 

 ally the male type of structure is still more 

 completely repeated in the female organization 

 by the median reunion of the two labia, giving 

 the appearance of the united scrotum and closed 

 perinaeum of the opposite sex. 



If we divide the whole sexual apparatus of 

 the male and female into three corresponding 

 transverse spheres or segments, the first or 

 deep parts including the testicles and ovaries, 

 the second or median comprehending the male 

 seminal canals and prostate gland, and the 

 female oviducts and uterus, and the third or 

 external embracing the copulating organs of the 

 two sexes, we shall find that, relatively 

 speaking, the deep and the external spheres are 

 naturally most developed in the male economy, 

 while the median, comprising the uterus, (the 

 principal and most active organ in the female 

 reproductive system,) is developed in the 

 greatest degree in that sex. In malformed 

 females presenting a spurious hermaphroditic 

 character, this important portion of the female 

 sexual organization is, in general, either itself 

 in some respects malformed, or, from the 

 structure of the other parts of the sexual appa- 

 ratus being imperfect, its specific importance in 

 the economy is cancelled, and therefore the 

 energy of development takes the same direction 

 as in the male, being expended upon the more 

 complete evolution of the organs of the external 

 and deep spheres. Hence the greater size of 

 the clitoris, and the greater development which 

 we have just now pointed out, in the median 

 line of reunion of the external sexual parts ; 

 and hence also the occasional though rare 

 occurrence, in the same cases, of the descent of 

 the ovaries through the inguinal rings into the 

 labia, an anomaly that certainly consists in 

 a true excess of development, and which we 

 cannot but regard as interesting, both in this 

 respect, and as affording a new point of 

 analogy between these organs themselves and 

 the male testicles. 



There is another and equally interesting point 

 of view in which we may look upon this sub- 

 ject. Not only are the forms of spurious her- 

 maphroditism which we have been considering, 

 capable of being traced backward to certain tran- 

 sitory types of sexual structure in the embryos 



