1878.] GENERATIVE ORGANS OF HY^NA CROCUTA. 425 



siderable size. There appears, indeed, upon consideration, to be no 

 reason why these glands should not be present in the males of tho"e 

 spec.es he females of winch want the vagina, as well as in those n 

 wl ch that organ ,s present, seeing that in both cases we have to do 

 with the tissue surrounding the lower ends of the Miillerian ducts 



ntte.ZTLT t0 r teniaI ge , n , ital 0r § anS ' l have before di ™ted 

 attention to the very close resemblance which in respect of these 



the ma le bears to the female, the so-called scrotal pouches and clitoris 



of the latter closely simulating the scrotum and penis of the other 



TW„ i F f Vei ' y iT U,Ute examiliation of these parts in both sexes 

 I have only been able to recognize the following by no means very 

 evident points of distinction between them: (1) In the female the 

 diameter of the free portion of the clitoris, including the prepuce is 

 greater than in the male, measuring J J inch in the form ?Zd 1 

 inch n t he att (2) ? be aperture » the ^^ J&™* 



of the female is slightly larger and much more dilatable than the 

 Responding aperture in the male. This difference depends on the 

 tact that the corpus spongiosum in the male forms the dans penis 

 and completely surrounds the urethral aperture, whilst in the female 

 the upper portion only of the glans is composed of erectile tissue its 

 lower portion being formed by the walls of the urino-genital cana 

 (o) 1 he glans penis of the male is covered with recurved snines 

 whUst the glans clitoridis of the female is devoid "these P (?) 

 In the male the cutaneous surface immediately behind the free 

 portion of the penis is covered with hair, whilst in the female the cor- 

 responds space is dotted with the little cutaneous depressions I 

 formerly described, and is devoid of hair. 



It will at once be. seen that these points of distinction are slight 

 and are not such as would enable one to decide the sex of the annual 

 in the absence of such an examination as is well nigh impossible so 

 long as the animal is alive. S "PObbioie so 



Bisexual Nature oftheHyana according to the Ancients—And 

 this leads me to observe, what I formerly stated, that the consideration 

 of these facts may serve to explain the ideas which were common 

 among the ancient Greeks regarding these animals, namely that 

 they were hermaphrodites. Since the date of my former communi- 

 cation, I have endeavoured to come to some conclusion re-ardinc 

 he origin of this apparently extraordinary belief, with the result 

 that it appears to me that a belief which in our day would rightly 

 be considered altogether absurd, by no means deserves to be so°cha- 

 ractenzed when viewed in the dim light of the knowledge possessed 

 by he ancients respecting these animals. These people had appa- 

 rently, either directly or indirectly, ascertained certain facts regarding 

 the sexual organs of the Hyaena, which, in the absence of more de- 

 finite knowledge, almost compelled them to adopt what I may call 

 the bisexual theory regarding them— a view which, as I formerly 

 stated, still obtains among the imperfectly educated Boors of South 

 Africa Among the Greeks, Aristotle' („.c. 384) appears to have 

 been the first who really investigated the sexual organs of the Hysena ; 

 1 ' Historia Animalium.' vi. 32. 



