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IX. On the Anatomy of the Female Organs of the Proboscidea. 

 By M. Watson, M.I)., Professor of Anatomy, Owens College, Manchester. 



Received March 30th, read April 20th, 1880. 



[Plates XXI., XXII.] 



On a previous occasion I laid before this Society an account of the anatomical pecu- 

 liarities of the malei and female'' organs of the Spotted Hyaena {H. crocuta); and whilst 

 engaged in pointing out the homologous parts of the genital organs in the two sexes 

 I used the following words:—" It is evident, therefore, that, in the female H. crocuta 

 the vagina being altogether absent, we must conclude tliat in the male of this species 

 the utriculus represents the uterus alone, and not the uterus and vagina together. The 

 same remark holds good, so far as I can ascertain, of only one other placental mammal — 

 that is, of the Indian Elephant, in the female of which, as Mayer* pointed out, the 

 vagina is altogether absent, and the uterus opens directly into the urino-genital canal." 

 At that time I had not myself examined the female organs of the Indian Elephant ; 

 and the comparison was made on the strength of Mayer's description of these. Since 

 then, through the kindness of my friend Dr. Alfred H. Young, I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of thoroughly investigating the female organs of a young specimen of the Indian 

 Elephant * ; and inasmuch as my observations differ materially from those of Mayer ', 

 whilst for the most part they agree with those of Hunter^, Miall and Greenwood' upon 

 the female organs of the Indian, as well as with those of Perrault^ and Forbes^ on 

 those of the African species, I have thought it well to lay them before the Society. It 

 is, moreover, a matter of some importance that a revised description of these organs 

 should be drawn up, not only because of the difference which exists in the descriptions 

 of the writers above named, but also because upon the exactitude of the description 

 depends the just interpretation of the different parts of the female passages, and, fol- 

 lowing upon this, the determination of correct homologies as between the male and 

 female organs of the same species. As the representations of the female organs of the 

 Proboscidea already published are, for the most part, unsatisfactory, I have had the 

 accompanying drawings of my own dissections made by a competent artist under my 

 direct superintendence, and can therefore vouch for their accuracy. 



' Proc. Zool. Soe. 1878, p. 416. ' Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 369. 



' Nova Acta Acad. C'tes. Leo.-Car. vol. xsii. p. 1. 



* The specimen was a youDg one, measuiing between 4 and 5 feet in height at the shoulder. 



° Loc. cit. ' Essays and Observations, vol. ii. p. 175. 



' Studies in Comparative Anatomy, vol. ii. p. 62. 



" Memoires pour servir a I'Histoii'e Naturelle des Animaux. torn. iii. partie 3, p. 132. 



" Proc. Zool. Soc. 187SI, p. 431. 



VOL. XI. — PART IV. No. 2. — April, 1881. u 



