Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
The phylogenetic explanation of polymastism, as given in comparative
anatomy, has lately found considerable support in ontogeny. Hans
Strahl, E. Schmitt, and others, have found that there are always in
the human embryo at the sixth week (when it is three-fifths of an inch
long) the microscopic traces of five pairs of mammary glands, and that
they are arranged at regular distances in two lateral and divergent
lines, which correspond to the mammary lines. Only one pair of
them--the central pair--are normally developed, the others atrophying.
Hence there is for a time in the human embryo a normal hyperthelism,
and this can only be explained by the descent of man from lower
primates (lemurs) with several pairs.
But the milk-gland of the mammal has a great morphological interest
from another point of view. This organ for feeding the young in man
and the higher mammals is, as is known, found in both sexes. However,
it is usually active only in the female sex, and yields the valuable
"mother's milk"; in the male sex it is small and inactive, a real
rudimentary organ of no physiological interest. Nevertheless, in
certain cases we find the breast as fully developed in man as in
woman, and it may give milk for feeding the young.
(FIGURE 1.104. A Greek gynecomast.)
We have a striking instance of this gynecomastism (large milk-giving
breasts in a male) in Figure 1.104. I owe the photograph (taken from
life) to the kindness of Dr. Ornstein, of Athens, a German physician,
who has rendered service by a number of anthropological observations,
(for instance, in several cases of tailed men). The gynecomast in
question is a Greek recruit in his twentieth year, who has both
normally developed male organs and very pronounced female breasts. It
is noteworthy that the other features of his structure are in accord
with the softer forms of the female sex. It reminds us of the marble
statues of hermaphrodites which the ancient Greek and Roman sculptors
often produced. But the man would only be a real hermaphrodite if he
had ovaries internally besides the (externally visible) testicles.
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