A TA VI SM OR RE VERSION. 1 5 3 



veloped to the same extent as in the functional male. 

 It must also be borne in mind, that in cases where sterile 

 females, or those which have ceased to bear young, put 

 on external male characters, they rarely attain such pro- 

 portions or beauty as in the male ; for in the males the 

 general excitement produced by sexual passion has a 

 most powerful stimulant effect upon the growth and 

 development of these structures, which is wanting in 

 the female. So that in her occasional attempts to 

 emulate the male she succeeds to a certain degree, but 

 rarely, if ever, attains to so good a condition. 



Hunter has recorded some experiments which have a 

 bearing on this matter : 



" I wished also to ascertain if the parts peculiar to the 

 male could grow on the female, and if the parts of a 

 female, on the contrary, would grow on a male. 



Although I had formerly transplanted the testicles 

 of a cock into the abdomen of a hen, and they had some- 

 times taken root there, but not frequently, and then had 

 never come to perfection, yet the experiment could not, 

 from this cause, answer fully the intended purpose ; there 

 is, I believe, a natural reason to believe it could not, and 

 the experiment was therefore disregarded. I took the 

 spur from the leg of a young cock, and placed it in the 

 situation of the spur in the leg of a hen-chicken ; it took 

 root, the chicken grew to a hen, but at first no spur grew, 

 while the spur that was left on the other leg of the cock 

 grew as usual. This experiment I have repeated several 

 times in the same manner, with the same effects, which 

 led me to conceive that the spur of a cock would not 

 grow upon a hen, and that they were, therefore, to be 



