Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Freemartin

I've just started reading Brave New World for the, well probably the sixth time. And came across the term "Free Martin" wikipedia defines "Free Martin" as: an infertile female mammal which has masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries. Genetically and externally the animal in female, but it is sterilized in the womb by hormones from a twin male, becoming an inertial partial intersex. Freemartinism is the normal outcome of mixed-sex twins in all cattle species that have been studied, and it also occurs occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs.

Interesting that this should be such an important part of Huxley's world in this book. It doesn't occur in human females. Or at least not as often as cattle.


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