HERMAPHRODITISM is a term employed by naturalists to designate the state or condition of those organisms. whether animal or vegetable, in which the sexual charac teristics of the male and female are united in the same individual. The name is derived from the fable of the union into one, of the bodies of Hermaphroditus, sou of Hermes and Aphrodite, and the nymph Salmacis. See Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1L1). iv. v. 347.
There are two kinds of hermaphroditism, the true and the spurious; in the former, there is an actual co-existence, in the same individual, of male and female reproductive organs; while in the latter, there is only an appearance, from arrest or excess of devel opment, of a union of the distinctive organs of both sexes. True hermaphroditism is the normal type of sexual structure in most plants. See HERMAPHRODITE, in botany. It likewise occurs normally in many of the lower invertebrate, and as a monstrosity in the higher invertebrate, and even occasionally in certain vertebrate.
The recent investigations of Balbiani show that certain infusoria (as, for instance, the common green paramcecium), at all events occasionally present the phenomena of hermaphroditism. In some of the polyps (as, for example, the hydra and sonic of the actinic=), the sexes are united in the same individual; the same is the case with some of the acalephm (namely, the ctenophora), with certain orders of helminthes or parasitic, worms (the cestodes and trematodes), with certain annelides (the hirudinei and hun bricini, of which the leech and the earth-worm are typical examples), with many acepha Ions mollusks, with the pteropods and with most of the gasteropods; while in the highest order of mollusks, the cephalopods, the sexes are always distinct. Among the crustaceans, the cirrhipeds are for the most part hermaphrodites; but in the other and higher orders, if hermaphroditism exists, it is only as an abnormal occurrence, and gives rise to a monstrosity. (For example, the common lobster has been observed with male organs on one side of its body, and female organs on the other.) True but not 'normal hermaph•oditism,is also occasionally met with in insects. In 14 by Oehsenheimer, the right side was male, and the left female; and in 9 cases it was the reverse. Prof. Owen remarks that in insects hermaphrodites are occasionally found.
where the characters of one sex, instead of extending over one-half, are limited to partic ular parts of the body which agree in the main with the other sex. Thus, in an individ ual of gastrophaga quercus, the body, the antennw, and the left wings were those of the female, while the right wings were those of the male.
True (but of course abnormal) hermaphroditism is far rarer amongst the vertebrate than in insects or crustaceans, Various instances, however, are on record of fishes presenting a lateral hermaphroditic structure, or a roe on one side and a milt on the other; and references to various cases that have been reported may be found in sir James Y. Simpson's learned and elaborate article, "Hermaphroditism," in The Cyelo perdia of Anatomy and Physiology. The same article may be referred to for cases of similar hermaphroditism in birds and mammals, including the human subject, namely, cases in which there were female structures on one side, and male structures (more or less perfect) on the other.
Returning from these eases of abnormal true hermaphroditism to those of normal true herrhaphroditism, the question naturally suggests itself—Can these true animal hermaphrodites, possessing male and female organs, fertilize themselves? As far as is known, none of the terrestrial hermaphrodites, such as land-mollusks (the common snail, for example) and earth-worms, are self-impregnating. They n11 pair, and in this respect offer a strong contrast with hermaphrodite plants. But of aquatic animals, there are many self-fertilizing hermaphrodites. For further details on the subject of hermaph roditism generally, the reader is referred to Steenstrup's Untersuehungen idier das York ommen des Hermaphroditismus in der Xatur (1840).
Spurious hermaphroditism is a subject of too purely a professional character to be 'noticed at all fully in these'llages, Those who take an interest in 'this subject may be referred for further information to sir James Y. Simpson's article, and to a case recorded a number of years ago in the Lancet by Dr. Girdwood.