MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 223 



female external organs, it will escape no one that this analogy is not 

 to be overlooked even here. The female vagina in every case consists 

 as well as the male penis of horny bones and ridges, which are united 

 together by a flexible membrane. If these horny bones project beyond 

 the abdomen they form the aculeus, or ovipositor, which has in its 

 entire structure the most striking resemblance to the penis. Exterior 

 valves enclose in both organs an internal compound instrument, which 

 is, as in the grasshoppers, where we observe the ovipositor, either con- 

 nate with the exterior valve, or it remains separated, as in the bees, 

 wasps, and other Hymenoptera, If the structure of such a sting be 

 compared, for example, with the penis of Dyticus, we observe, even to 

 their smallest parts, the greatest conformity ; indeed, even the male 

 sexual organs of the wasp agree both in number and situation of the 

 individual parts wholly with the sting of the female. Henceforward, 

 therefore, it may not appear hazardous to assert that the ovipositor, by 

 its conformity in structure with the penis, is analogous to the clitoris 

 of the superior animals. This view, which as far as I know is here 

 propounded for the first time, may be liable to many objections, parti- 

 cularly by those who do not pass beyond forms, nor elevate themselves 

 to general simplifying and retrogressive ideas ; but they who study 

 natural bodies in conjunction with others furnished merely as orismo- 

 logical auxiliaries, and who are not merely acquainted with ten thou- 

 sand species, but endeavour also to discover the general results of their 

 various vital phenomena, will here discover a not wholly unimportant 

 contribution to the solution of this great problem. 



We have above shown that the jointed ovipositor is no peculiar organ 

 belonging only to the sexual ones, but rather the mere apex of the 

 abdomen ; its divaricating in form therefore cannot be cited as a proof 

 against the opinion that the ovipositor is a transformed clitoris. 



