We deem it not uninteresting to point out in this place, under the question of the origin of hermaphroditic malformations, a circumstance which has struck us in considering one or two of the cases in which the sexual apparatus of one side of the body was more imperfectly developed than that of other, viz. that the opposite side of the encephalon was at the same time defectively formed. Thus in the case of Charles Durge, on the right side of whose body there was a well-formed testi cle, and on the left an imperfect ovary, the right hemispheres of the cerebrum and cere bellum, but particularly of the latter, were found by Professor Mayer to be smaller and less developed than the left, and the left side of the occiput was externally more prominent than the right. The same author, in the ac count of his case of hermaphroditism in a person of eighteen years of age, which we have previously quoted,il and where there was an imperfect testicle, &c. on the right side, hut no trace of testicle or ovary in the left, inci dentally mentions that the right side of the cranium was somewhat prominent,—" dextra pars cranii paullulo protninet," in correspon denoe, there is every reason to believe, with a slight predominance in size in the hemispheres of the encephalon of the same side. In ad ducing these two eases we do not wish to draw any inference with regard to the relation of causation between the size and development of the encephalic mass and the determination of the sex, but would merely point out the facts themselves in the meantime, for the purpose of drawing attention to the subject in the observa tion of any future similar instances that may happen to occur.
connection with the question of the causes of hermaphroditism, it is interesting to remark that in some instances malformations of the genital organs giving rise to appearances of her maphroditism have been observed both to be hereditary in particular families, and in other cases to occur among several of the children of the sameparents. Thus Ileuremann• mentions an example of a family the females of which had for several generations given birth to males who were all affected with hypospadias ; and Lecatf alleges that a degree of hypospadias is not uncommon among families in Nor mandy. In Rust's Magazine an instance is related of a degree of hypospadias existing in a father and son.! Baum,§ in his essay on con genital fissures of the urethra, has referred to two instances of the existence of hypospadias in brothers of the same family, the first men tioned by Walrecht,11 and the second by GockelAl Sir Everard Home" found two cases of hypospadias in two children belonging to the same parents. Kauw Boerhaaveft men tions an example of four hypospadiac brothers, and Lepechin another instance of three.!! Naegele has reported a case in which two male twins were both hypospadie,§§ and Katsky II I and SaviardIA have mentioned similar in stances.
We have already, when treating of transverse hennaphroditistn, alluded to another fact long and extensively known among our agriculturists, but first prominently brought before the notice of physiologists by Mr. Hunter, that the free martin cow, or the cow that is born a co-twin with a male, is generally barren and has its sexual organs more or less defectively developed or hermaphroditically formed*" In three dif ferent instances Mr. Hunter confirmed the fact
of the anomalous sexual development of such animals by dissection ; and Scalia* and Gurltf have published some additional ob servations and cases. We have lately had an opportunity of dissecting the sexual parts of two adult free-martins, and found them, as already detailed, formed after ao abnormal and imperfect sexual type ; and our friend Dr. Allen Thomson made some years ago a similar observation upon a free-martin twin festal calf. Cases, however, exceptional to the general fact of the sterility and imperfect sexual conforma tion of the free-martin twin cow are not unfre quently met with. Mr. Bunter found the sexual organs of a free-martin calf that died when about a month old apparently naturally constituted. lie speaks also of having beard of some free-martins that were so perfectly formed in their sexual parts as to be capable of breeding ; and different instances of their fe cundity have been published by Dr. Moulson and others! since the time that Mr. hunter directed attention to this subject. In some pretty extensive inquiries which we have made in regard to this point among the agriculturists of the Lothians, we have learned only of two instances in which free-martins proved capable of propagating, and such cases seem to be always looked upon as forming exceptions to the general rule.
We are not aware that among other uni parous domestic animals, as the goat, mare, &c , when a female is born a co-twin with a male, this female is sterile, and has its sexual organs hermaphroditically formed, as in the free-martin cow ; and we are sufficiently as sured that no such law holds with regard to twins of opposite sexes among sheep. Sir Everard Home, in his essay on monstrous for mations, § mentions that in warm countries nurses and midwives have a prejudice that such women as have been born twins with males seldom breed; and we have found the same prejudice existing to a considerable degree among the lower orders in Scotland. Mr. Cribb,Il of Cambridge, published in 1823 a short paper in order to refute this notion as far as regarded the human subject. He refers to the histories of seven women who had been born co-twins with males. Six of these had children, and the remaining seventh subject alone had been married for several years without any issue. We have ourselves made a series of extensive inquiries of the same nature as those published by Mr. Cribb, and have obtained authentic information regarding forty two adult married females who had been born as twins with males. Of these, thirty-six were mothers of families, and six had no children, though all of them had been married for a number of years. Two of the females who have families were each born as a triplet with two males.* In the Medical Repository for 1827 (p. 350) an anonymous author has men tioned an instance of quadruplets consisting of three boys and a girl, who were all reared : the female afterwards became herself the mother of triplets. Limited as the data to which we here allude confessedly are, they are still amply sufficient to show that in by far the majority of cases the females of twins of opposite sexes are in the human subject actually fertile, and, as some of the cases we have collected show, they are occasionally unusually prolific.