20 
Jeffries on an Hermaphrodite Bird. 
[January 
nerves. The substance of the testicle had evidently undergone 
considerable loss and by no means filled up the tunica albuginea. 
When picked to pieces the substance of the gland was found 
to consist of rather small coiled tubes — the tubuli seminiferi, — 
blood-vessels and nerves. The tubes were naturally much de- 
cayed and went to pieces at the slightest touch. They stained 
but poorly with any reagent. The tubules were carefully exam- 
ined with a high power for spermatozoa. No satisfactory evidence 
of their existence could be discovered, though two or three bodies 
which may have been developing spermatozoa were found. The 
histology of the tubules themselves seemed perfectly normal. 
The blood-vessels, which entered with the vas deferens, 
branched and split up into capillaries which extended out to the 
surface of the organ. 
In closing the description I would say that great care was taken J 
to guard against all possible mistakes of identification, caused by | 
diseased growth, remains of embryonic structures, or malforma- 
tions, also that the testicle did not present the slightest resemblance 
to a modified right ovary ; the true nature of the gland was 
undoubted. 
There can therefore be no doubt but that the specimen is a 
perfect example of lateral hermaphroditism, the left side being 
like that of a normal female, and the right very much like that of 
a normal male, the abnormal condition of the kidney very likely 
explaining the slight change in relations of the genital and urinary 
ducts. That no spermatozoa were found does not prove the tes~ 
tide to have been functionless, since the period of rut had not 
commenced. This of course assuming that no spermatozoa 
were found — a point I cannot positively assert — and that spermato- 
zoa would have been found had they existed in the gland. Consid- 
ering the decayed state of the gland. 1 doubt if the latter condition 
would hold good. 
Similar cases are very rare and but three have, so far as I j 
know, been reported for birds, while Quain’s Anatomy * in 
referring to man, reads as follows: “Extremely rare forms 
referable to the possible coexistence of the productive parts of 
testicle and ovaries in the same individual, usually combined 
with more or less of the foregoing kinds of malformation.” This 
Quain’s Anatomy, Eighth Edition, Vol. II, p. 825. 
