X.—The Structure of the Reproductive Organs in the Free-Martin, with a Theory of the Significance of the Abnormality

Abstract

The apparent prodigality with which Nature provides for the reproduction of plants and animals has a marked exception in the case of sterile organisms, often produced on a large scale, in which every function except that of propagation may be carried on in a quite perfect manner. The cases of the sterilisation of an organism are best seen in insects, but I wish at present to consider its occurrence high up in the animal kingdom in the well-known case of the Free-Martin, an apparent sterile cow born co-twin with a potent bull.