1888.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 189 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FEMALE GENERATIVE APPARATUS OF 



HY^NA CROCUTA. 



BY HENRY C. CHAPMAN, M. D. 



The Hyaena, as well known, was regarded by many of the ancients 

 as being a hermaphrodite. Thus Aelian^ observes " if you see a 

 male hysena one year the next year you will see a female, if now 

 truly a female, afterwards a male, for it partakes of both sexes," 

 Avhile according to Pliny'' " the vulgar believe that the hytena is of 

 both natures and are on alternate years male and female, and bring 

 forth without a male." The same opinion appears also to prevail 

 to a considerable extent even at the present day among the natives 

 and settlers in South Africa. Like many other pojDular opinions 

 and superstitions the view of the sexes being united in the same in- 

 dividual in the hysena is based to a certain extent upon fact, as in 

 one species at least, the Hycena crocuta, or spotted hyaena, the 

 male and female individuals resemble each other so closely that 

 naturalists as well as animal dealers and showmen find it impossible, 

 Avithout dissection, to distinguish one sex from the other. Such 

 being the case it might naturally have been supposed that the at- 

 tention of anatomists would long since have been called to the con- 

 sideration of the generative apparatus in Hycena crocuta, especially 

 as in the other two species and Hyoeiia striata, Hyctna hrxmnea, 

 the disposition of the generative apparatus is normal. It is only, 

 however, within recent years that it was shown by Prof. Watson 

 of Manchester, England, that in the female of Hycena crocuta 

 the uterus passes directly without an intervening vagina into the 

 urethra to form a uro-genital canal which, perforating the clitoris, 

 offers a passage-waj^, not onl}'' for the urine but also for the 

 foetus. Such a disposition would naturall}^ suggest without dissec- 

 tion the idea of the animal being a hermaphrodite — especially as 

 not only are the vulva and vagina entirely absent, (Plates IX 

 and X), but there are present in addition to the large and well de- 

 veloped clitoris two projections below the anus simulating a condition 



1 Hyaenam si videas uno t[uidem anno marem altera videbis foeminam, si vero 

 nunc foeminam, postea marem, utruisque enim sexas particeps est. Claudii Aeliani, 

 De Animalium natura. Ludguni, 161 B, Lib. 1, Cap. xxv. 



2 Hyrenis utraqua esse natura et altenus annis mares alteris foemias fieri, 

 parere sine mare vulgus credit. C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historia;. Venetiis 

 1559, Lil3. viii, Cap. xxx. 



