A review of the English literature on hermaphroditism, covering eighty-four cases, shows that the patients' sexual longings are not primarily determined by their internal and external somatic characteristics, but rather by their upbringing. In the majority of the cases both true hermaphrodites and pseudohermaphrodites, if they are raised as males, play a masculine sexual rôle and if raised as females, a feminine rôle. The conclusion is drawn that heterosexuality or homosexuality in hermaphrodites are primarily caused not by direct hormonal or other physiological factors but rather by environmental ones.