724 



HERMAPHRODITISM. 



to the formation of the sexual organs, which 

 may enable us to make an approach at least to 

 accurate ideas of the character and origin of 

 those anormalities that constitute the several 

 varieties of true hermaphroditism. These facts 

 relate to the interesting subject of the unity of 

 structure which is manifested in the correspond- 

 ing male and female reproductive organs of the 

 human subject, and of other species of bisexual 

 animals. 



By several of the Greek, Roman, and Ara- 

 bian physiologists,* the respective organiza- 

 tions of the two sexes were considered as in 

 some degree typical of one another, the female 

 being regarded as an inverted male, with the 

 testicles and penis turned inwards to form the 

 ovaries and uterus. This doctrine of analogy 

 between the male and female sexual organs 

 has, with various modifications, been very ge- 

 nerally admitted by modern physiologists, and 

 in some of its bearings it has been made, more 

 particularly of late years, the subject of consi- 

 derable discussion. The testicles are still re- 

 garded as organs which correspond with the 

 ovaries in their original situation, in their vas- 

 cular and nervous connections, and in their re- 

 lative sexual functions. The recent progress 

 of the anatomy of the development of the em- 

 bryo has also shewn that the two organs cor- 

 respond in their primitive origin. It is now 

 well ascertained that the large masses occupy- 

 ing each side of the abdomen of the embryo 

 at an early stage of development, and which 

 Rathke has named the Wolffian bodies after 

 their illustrious discoverer, form, in Birds and 

 Mammalia at least, the primordial matrices 

 upon which the urinary and genital organs are 

 developed. On the inner side of each of these 

 matrices a small body is early developed, which 

 seems to become afterwards either a testicle or 

 an ovary, according to the particular ulterior 

 sexual type which the embryo assumes. 



In further following up the analogy of struc- 

 ture between the organs of the two sexes, the 

 vasa deferentia of the male are generally com- 

 pared to the Fallopian tubes of the female, 

 the scrotum to the external labia, the body of 

 the penis to the clitoris, and its corpus spon- 

 giosum, or, according to others, its prepuce, is 

 regarded as corresponding in type with 

 the female nymphae. A considerable dif- 

 ference of opinion, however, still prevails 

 as to the prototype of the female uterus in the 

 male system. Some anatomists, as Burdach, 

 Steghiener, and Blainville, regard the uterus 

 and male vesiculae seminales as corresponding 

 parts ; while others, as Meckel, Carus, Schmidt, 

 Ackermann, and Serres, compare the uterus to 

 the male prostate. A sufficient number of 

 facts seems still wanting to determine the accu- 

 racy and justness of either of these analogies. 

 There are instances of malformation on record 

 which appear to favour both opinions, and there 

 are other cases which almost incline us to be- 



* Aristotle, Hist. An. lib. i. 17. Galen, De Semine, 

 lib. ii. & De Usu Partium, c. i. Rhases, De Re 

 Medica, lib. i. cap. 26. Avicenna, De Membris Ge- 

 neral, lib. iii. 21, &c. 



lieve that the vesiculse seminales correspond to 

 the fundus or body of the uterus in the human 

 subject, and to the cornua uteri in quadrupeds; 

 while the prostate represents in the male struc- 

 ture the lower portion or cervix of the same 

 organ. The phenomena of the development 

 of the reproductive organs in the embryo will, 

 when more fully investigated, probably serve to 

 clear up this question. 



M. Geotfroy St. Hilaire has propounded 

 views of the analogy of the male and female 

 organs in some respects different from the above. 

 He divides the uterus of the human subject 

 into the body and the upper part or fundus, the 

 latter corresponding to what constitutes the 

 cornua uteri in the human embryo, and in adult 

 quadrupeds. Further, believing that in the 

 determination of all analogies in type and 

 structure between different organs, the origin 

 and course of the bloodvessels supplying the 

 part ought to be our principal criterion, he has 

 been led, by the study of the distribution of the 

 branches of the hypogastric arteries, to consider 

 the body of the uterus and the vesiculse semi- 

 nales as repetitions of each other in the two 

 sexes ; and, contrary to the opinion of most 

 anatomists, he conceives that the male vasa 

 deferentia strictly correspond with the fundus 

 or cornua uteri, and that the epididymis repre- 

 sents a coiled-up Fallopian tube, or in other 

 words that the Fallopian tube is an unrolled 

 epididymis. M St. Hilaire has offered the 

 following table to shew what he conceives to 

 be analogous organs in the two sexes : * 



In the male. In the female. 



Testicle = Ovary 



Epididymis =5 Fallopian tube 



Vas deferens. = Cornu of the uterus 



Vesicula seminalis= Body of the uterus. 



Sheath of the penis = Vagina 



Penis = Clitoris 



In tracing out the analogies between the 

 male and female parts, the mode in which we 

 ought to consider the female vagina has given 

 rise to some diversity of opinion. From the 

 above table it appears that M. St. Hilaire con- 

 siders it to be represented in the male organiza- 

 tion by the sheath of the penis, but we are cer- 

 tainly inclined to view it in a different light, 

 and to regard it as a part in so far peculiar to 

 the female, that it consists of a permanent 

 condition of that urino-gemtal perinseal fissure 

 that we have already described as existing at a 

 certain period in the embryos of both sexes, 

 and which is latterly shv.t up in the male, or, 

 speaking more accurately, it is contracted into 

 what forms the pelvic portion of the male 

 urethra. 



If this were a fit opportunity for following 

 out the consideration of the unity of type be- 

 tween the male and female reproductive organs, 

 it would be easy to shew the justness of those 

 greater analogies that we have mentioned, by 

 pointing out other numerous minor, but still 

 strong points of correspondence manifested in 



* Phil. Anat. torn. i. (1822,) p. 471. 



