Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of SpeciesCunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Science
Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species
Cunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Endocrinology; Heredity; Hormones; Mendel's law
seem that their development does not depend upon the presence of the
sexual organs. It is a question, however, whether castration in the cock
is ever quite complete. In the original wild species and in the majority
of domesticated breeds the spurs are confined to the male sex, and are
typical secondary sex-characters, as much so as the antlers of stags or
the beard of man, yet the above discussion shows that there is some doubt
whether their development is prevented as much as in other cases by the
absence of the sexual organs. Even if it should be proved that in supposed
cases of complete castration, such as that of Shattock and Seligmann, some
testicular tissue remained at the site of the testes, it would still be
true that the development of the comb and wattles is more affected by the
removal of the sexual organs than that of the spurs or tail feathers.
My own experiments in castrating cocks were as follows: On August 20,
1910, I operated on a White Leghorn cock about five months old. One testis
was removed, with a small part of the end broken off, but the other, after
it was detached, was lost among the intestines. On the same day I operated
on another about thirteen weeks old, a speckled mongrel. In this case both
testes were extracted but one was slightly broken at one end, although I
was not sure that any of it was left in the body. An entire White Leghorn
of the same age as the first was kept as a control. On August 27 the two
castrated birds had recovered and were active. Their combs had diminished
in size and lost colour considerably, that of the White Leghorn was
scarcely more than half as large as that of the control. Such a rapid
diminution can scarcely he due to absorption of tissue, but shows that the
size of the normal cock's comb is largely due to distension with blood,
which ceases when the sexual organs are removed. In the following January,
the second cock, supposed to be completely castrated, was seen to make a
sexual gesture like a cock, though not a complete action like an entire
animal: this showed that the sexual instinct was not completely
suppressed. In February this same bird was seen to attempt to tread a hen,
while the white one, supposed to be less perfectly emasculated, had never
shown such male instinct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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