242 HOMOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE 



With these qualifications, it still remains true that where 

 the unity of the organic structure is not hroken in upon by 

 an interpolated process of gemmation, all the individuals of 

 the species, as their normal constitution, present indications 

 of sexuality. They may not all he endowed with reproduc- 

 tive power, hut they all normally possess organs, either 

 male or female, or hoth combined. 



It has been contended, indeed, that the original unifor- 

 mity of type is even more absolute than this that sexual 

 organs, of both kinds, exist at first normally in all the in- 

 dividuals of a species, though the full development of one 

 sex is usually associated with the non-development of the 

 opposite a view originally suggested by Dr. Knox,* and 

 one which has several theoretical considerations in its 

 favour. It goes far to harmonize the existence of the sexual 

 peculiarities of individuals with the general laws of repro- 

 duction, in those species whose continuity of organization 

 is not broken up by any separation of free zooids ; for it 

 certainly seems more natural in this case to regard all the 

 individuals as having an original structural identity, and 

 to ascribe the sexual differences to the non-development of 

 certain parts, than to suppose the admitted rule of like pro- 

 ducing like to be continually broken in upon by essential 

 differences of organization from the very first in the parts of 

 generation. It also serves to soften the abruptness of the con- 

 trast between the normal hermaphroditism of some species, 

 and the arrangement of separate sexes, which is the ordinary 

 rule in the animal kingdom. And it affords, farther, a ready 

 explanation of the occasional appearance of hermaphrodites, 

 even in species in which the sexes are normally separate. 



This is, indeed, a rare occurrence, for the individuals so 

 termed are commonly only malformed males or females. 

 But a monstrosity, consisting of a real intermixture of sex, 



* firewater's Edinburgh Journal of Science, II., 322 1830. 



