Studies in intersexuality. I.—A peculiar type of developmental intersexuality in the male of the domesticated mammals

Abstract

During the past ten years three types of intersexuality have been made the subject of detailed examination. Lillie’s work on the bovine free-martin deals with a vertebrate form; that of Bridges on the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster , and of Goldschmidt on the Gipsy moth Lymantria , with invertebrate forms. It is the purpose of this paper to deal with a certain type of intersexuality, occurring among the domesticated mammals, which has not yet been brought into line with the general body of researches into that condition. Abnormality of the reproductive system, taking the form of an intimate mixture of male and female structures of the accessory sexual apparatus, and associated with some degree of imperfection of the external organs of generation, is not uncommon in the domesticated animals, and many cases in the human subject have been recorded. The condition has been referred to as “pseudo-hermaphroditism” and as “tubular partial hermaphroditism,” and John Hunter, in his treatment of the bovine free-martin, mentions that he had met with the same sort of abnormality in the horse, sheep, pig and goat. In the course of the last two years the present writer has examined thirty-five cases in the different domesticated mammals, and many of these have been described in detail in the 'Veterinary Journal.’