Hermaphroditism.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hermaphroditism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    when the various male sexual peculiarities have been already developed, the effect is seldom so striking; the sexual instincts of the animal, and the energy of character which these in- stincts impart, are certainly more or less com- pletely destroyed, and the tone of the voice is sometimes changed to that of puberty; but the general male characteristics of form, such as the beard in man, and the horns in the Ru- minantia, most commonly continue to grow. In animals, such as the stag, which possess deciduous horns, the removal of the testicles during the rutting season causes the existing horns to be permanent; and if the operation is performed in an adult animal when out of heat, no new horns in general appear.* In the ox, the effect of castration upon the growth of the horns, even when performed before the time of puberty, is quite remarkable; for instead of having their development altogether stopped, or their size at least diminished by the opera- tion, as occurs in the ram and stag, the volume of these appendages is even increased by the operation, the horns of the ox being generally larger but less strong than those of the entire bull. Castration in the boar causes, according to Greve,f the tusks to remain small, and pre- vents altogether the replacement of the teeth. This author also states that the same operation on the horse prevents the full development of the neck, renders the teeth smaller and slower in their growth, increases the growth of the hair, and the size of the horny protuberances on the inside of the legs. The prostate gland, he further alleges, as well as the vesiculae se- minales, become augmented as much as a third in their volume in consequence of the operation .J The removal of the testicles both before and after the period of puberty commonly gives rise to another singular effect,—to an increased deposition of fat over the body, as has already been mentioned in the article Adipose Tissue, and from this circumstance the general form of the body, and in man that of the mammae, is sometimes modified in a degree that in- creases the resemblance to the opposite sex. In the sterile of both sexes in the human sub- ject an unusual corpulency is not uncom- mon, and the same state is often met with in old persons, and particularly in females, after the period of their child-bearing life is past. The nature of the effects produced by the existence and functional activity of the testicles and ovaries upon the development of the se- condary sexual characters of the male and female, may be further illustrated by what occurs in the season of heat to animals such as the deer, sheep, birds, &c. that have peri- odical returns of the sexual propensity. At these periods all the distinctive general characters of the sexes become much more prominently developed, in conjunction with, and apparently in consequence of, the changes which have * Buffon, Hist. Nat. tom. vi. p. 80. t Bruchstuecke zur Vergl, Anat. und Physiol, p. 41. J Loc. cit. p. 45. been ascertained by observation to occur at that time in the relative size and activity of the in- ternal organs of generation. Thus with the return of the season of sexual instinct the dorsal crests and cutaneous ear-lobes of tritons enlarge; in Batrachian Reptiles the spongy inflations of the thumbs become increased in size; the various species of singing birds re- acquire their vocal powers; and some, as the cuckoo and quail, appear capable of exercising their voice only at this period of the year. At the pairing season also the plumage of birds becomes brighter in tint, and in some instances is in other respects considerably changed, as in the male ruff' ( Tringa pugnax), who then reassumes the tuft of feathers upon his head and neck, and the red tubercles upon his face that had fallen off during the moulting, and thus left him more nearly allied in appearance to the female during the winter. In reference to this subject, it appears to us interesting to remark, that in certain birds, as in the different species of the genus Fringilla, the male pre- sents in winter a plumage very similar to that of the female,* and in the present inquiry it is important to connect this fact with the very diminutive size and inactive condition of the testicles of these birds at that season. (See Aves.) From the remarks that we have now made upon the influence of the ovaries and testicles in developing the general sexual peculiarities of the female and male, it will be easy to con- ceive that when, in cases of malformation of the external genital organs giving rise to the idea of hermaphroditism, there is at the same time, as sometimes happens, a simultaneous want of development in the internal organs of reproduction, particularly in the ovaries and testicles, the general physical and moral pecu- liarities distinctive of the sex of the individual may be equally deficient, or have a tendency even to approach in more or fewer of their points to those of the opposite sexual type. In this way we may, it is obvious, have general or constitutional hermaphroditic characters, if they may be so termed, added to those al- ready existing in the special organs of gene- ration, and rendering more difficult and com- plicated the determination of the true sex of the malformed individual. Somecases of spu- rious hermaphroditism in the male published by Sir E. Homef may serve to illustrate this remark. A marine soldier, aged twenty-three, was admitted a patient into the Royal Naval Hos- pital at Plymouth. He had been there only a few days, when a suspicion arose of his being a woman, which induced Sir Everard to ex- amine into the circumstances. He proved to have no beard; his breasts were fully as large as those of a woman at that age; he was in- clined to be corpulent; his skin was uncom- monly soft for a man ; his hands were fat and short, and his thighs and legs very much like those of a woman: the quantity of fat upon * Stark’s Elements of Nat. Hist, vol.i. p. 243. f Comp. Anat. vol. iii. p. 320.