174 PECULIARITIES OF INTERNAL STRUCTURE. 



Camper* says that the hymen was not apparent^, although 

 the individual was very young. BLUMENBACHf informs 

 us that he could neither find any trace of this part^ nor those 

 supposed remains of it called carunculfe myrtiformes, in 

 monkeys or baboons; and that his search was equally 

 fruitless in a female elephant, in which it had been reported 

 that a hymen existed. Cuvier J, on the contrary, represents 

 that several mammalia have a distinct membranous fold at 

 the entrance of the vagina, and others a decided contraction 

 in the same situation. 



It is not so easy to explain the use or purpose of this 

 membrane, as to establish the fact of its existence. This 

 little fold has indeed completely puzzled the physico-theo- 

 logists, who have as yet assigned no rational explanation of 

 it. The moral purposes alluded to by Haller § are quite 



♦ CEuvres, i. 102. 



+ Ds G. H. Var. Nat. Lect. i. § 8. 



X He states on the authority of Steller, that the northern manati has a 

 strong semilunar fold at the orifice of the vagina, contracting the entrance of 

 that canal; that the mare and ass have a similar structure; and that in the 

 ouistiti (simiajacchus), the marikina (S. rosa]la),and the coaita (S. paniscus), 

 there are two lateral semilunar folds, leaving between them a perpendicular 

 slit. In the otter, dog, cat, and ruminants, he found a constricted circle. 

 In the brown bear there was a thick lip-like fold of the internal membrane, 

 reducing the entrance of the vagina to a simple transverse slit; and the hyena 

 exhibited an analogous structure. A young hyrax had a very distinct circular 

 hymen. Leg. (VAnat. Comp. t. v. p. 131—2. 



^ " Vix tamen dubites, cum solo in homine sit repertus, etiam ad morales 

 fines ei esse concessum signum pudicitice, quo et vitium illatum cognoscatur, 

 et pura virgo decus snum possit tueri, et ipse maritus de castitate sponsx' 

 facile convincatur,eo facilius, quod practerea in illibata virgine vagina angusfa 

 sit. Etsi enim possit fieri ut parvus, ut laxus sit hymen, atque prima venus 

 aliquando absque sanguine absolvatur, neque hymen rumpatur ; etsi arti- 

 ficio porro in parum pudica femina sanguis possit olici ; etsi tenerae virgincs 

 aliquando etiam in altero coitu sanguinem reddunt, et menses fluentcs vagi- 

 nam laxant ; tamen in universum debet prima venus crucnta esse, eoque 

 signo pudor virgineus adseri, cum vix possit plena venus obtineri, quin supe- 

 rior margo partis majoris hymenis laceretur. Quare et Mosaicce leges, et 

 multorum populorum consuetudo, hoc signum servata? castitatis et requirunt 

 et ostentant, ct de exemplis in virginibus etiam pene trigenariis certus sum, 

 qiiaj insigneni in prima venere sanguinis jacturam sunt passa;." Elem. 

 Physiol, lib. 28. sect. 2. ^ 27. 



