The bovine freemartin: a new look at an old problem

Abstract

The first scientific study of the freemartin condition in cattle was published by John Hunter in 1779. One of the animals that he procured for his dissections came from a certain Mr Wright, and there was no history of this particular animal having been born co-twin to a bull. In addition to providing us with detailed anatomical notes of his dissections, Hunter commissioned William Bell to portray the dissected reproductive tract (figure 1, plate 17). The specimen itself, now almost 200 years old, is still in an excellent state of preservation and can be seen in the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincolns Inn Fields, London.