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Show 594 DR. J. MURIE ON A CASE OF MALFORMATION [Dec. 1 .*!, male as the female sex ; I was inclined rather to regard it as a heifer. O n more careful scrutiny, however, we at length agreed that its general physical appearance approached nearest to that of a castrated animal-chiefly for the reason that the head had a slight masculine tendency, the shoulders and neck being also somewhat heavier than is usually met with in a young female, although, upon the whole, the proportions of body and limbs might perhaps be deemed too delicate for a male. Sexual distinction, so far as the external genital organs were concerned, was in favour of its being in reality a male; for there was an absence of vaginal opening in the usual situation; and when micturition took place, the urine escaped from an abdominal urethral-like orifice, marked, as in a bull, by a prominently hanging fold of skin on which were developed numerous long and strong hairs. Upon examination after death, none of the viscera were found to exhibit anything abnormal* in their formation, with the exception of the genito-urinary organs. In proceeding to describe the condition of these malformed parts, it will be convenient to commence with the external organs, continuing from without inwards. The accompanying figure (p. 595) illustrates the peculiar anatomical points described in detail. It is reduced from a photograph of the parts, exhibited as a dissected preparation. The anus and rectum were natural in position and structure (see figure, letters A. and R.). Below the former the skin seemed rather bare of hair, more full and lax than usual in a male animal, but with no trace of a vulva at this part, the distance between the anus and the genito-urinary (abdominal) outlet (U.g. o.) measuring 19| inches. Along this space there was a prominent perineal raphe having a dark line on its summit, and with short hairs on either side parted outwards. This raphe ended nearly 2 inches behind the genital orifice, in a very slightly raised glandular or rough patch almost as large as a shilling. Four teats were present (T.), and two rather imperfectly developed mammary glands (M. g.) ; these were placed apparently slightly in advance of their usual situation in a Cow. The glandular texture of the latter was so incorporated with fat and resembled the surrounding adipose tissue so much in colour and consistence as to be with difficulty distinguishable from it. In dimensions the mammae were each about 5 inches long and 1| to 2 inches broad, but thin in proportion. The umbilicus was placed at a distance of 13| inches forwards from the genital opening, its cicatrix was half an inch in length. The urino-genital outlet (U.g.o.) opened between the atrophied udders. It was a widish semilunar cleft fully 2 inches long, and * The pathological condition is not here referred to; the organs, however, seemed all healthy, the only notable exception being an enlarged state of the solitary glands of the intestine, which Dr. Crisp believed to be diseased, but which I was inclined to attach no importance to, rather considering them to exhibit an enlarged but healthy functional condition. |