172 PECULIARITIES OF INTERNAL STRUCTURE. 



to be the case in the papio maimon and the simia cyno- 

 molgus), and they are, consequently, retro-mi ngent and 

 retro-copulant. 



Mr. Hunter, vvlio had had opportunities of observing 

 the process, informs us that " monkeys always copulate 

 backwards : this is performed sometimes when the female 

 is standing on all fours; and at other times the male' brings 

 her between his thighs when he is sitting, holding her with 

 liis fore-paws */' 



Dr. Froriep, of Weimar, late p'nysician to the King of 

 Wurtemberg, informed me that he had often seen monkeys 

 copulate in the extensive menagerie of that monarch ; and 

 that they performed the process backwards ; the male sup- 

 porting himself by the feet on the calves of the female, so 

 that he did not touch the ground. 



The incurvation of the sacrum and coccyx turns the 

 human vagina forwards, so that its axis cuts that of the 

 pelvis nearly at right angles, and its anterior opening is 

 turned forwards : the urethra opens on its upper and front 

 edge, not at all within the canal. Hence the human female 

 differs from all other mammaliaf in not being retro- 

 mingent and retro-copulant ; hence, too, although many 

 inconveniences, to which she would have been otherwise 

 exposed, particularly during pregnancy, are obviated, par- 

 turition is rendered much more difficult, and a physical 

 reason is found for that doom under which she labours, of 

 bringing forth children in sorrow and in pain. 



some other monkeys, as the sapajous ; or even superior, as in the bear, 

 Z/ff. d'Anat- Comp. v. 128. 



On account of the great depth of the syinp'iysis pubis in the orang-utans; 

 (tAvo inches in an animal of little more than two feet, which is equal to its 

 greatest depth in the tallest woman), lliu i.iLiiira of the orang-utang is even 

 longer than that of the human female. Camper, ut supra, p. 107. 



* Animal Economy, p. 130. 



f Probably the cetacoa may form an exception to this statement. Our 

 attention, however, is hardly extended to them in this comparison of man 

 and animals. According to the representation of Stlller, the manati and 

 the ursine seal (sea-cow and st>a-bcar) copulate in the human method. Nov. 

 Comm> Acad. Scknt- Pcirop. v. ii. pp. 3V5, and 351. 



