128 PROP. M. WATSON ON THE ANATOJMY OF THE 



the urine is oidiuaiily discharged downwards and forwards ; but sexual congress takes 

 place in something like the position ordinary among quadrupeds"'. This view of the 

 position of the urino-genital canal during sexual congress is hardly satisfactory when the 

 position of the organs in situ is taken into consideration. These authors had appa- 

 i-ently examined the organs when removed from the body, when, of course, the urino- 

 genital canal would form a straight tube — leading naturally to the belief that this form 

 could be assumed by the organ when in situ. The arrangement and mode of attach- 

 ment of the terminal portion of this canal, however, is such that no amount of erection 

 of the clitoris could so far straighten it as to direct its orifice backward so as to receive 

 the male organ from behind, as happens in the Mare or Cow. Under these circum- 

 stances there is only one other explanation that appears to carry weight with it ; 

 and that is the view long since held by Buffon -, supported by the evidence of eye- 

 witnesses, and more recently by Crisp ^. According to the statements of these authors 

 the female, during sexual congress, rests upon the knees of the fore legs, the hind legs 

 being simultaneously extended to the full. By this means the orifice of the vulva is 

 so far directed backward as to facilitate the performance of the act in question ■*. The 

 accuracy of this view has lately been called in question by Mr. Sanderson \ who states 

 that he has " on four different occasions witnessed the act — once by two animals be- 

 longing to a wild herd in the jungles, in the others by animals which had just been 

 caught and which were at large within the kheddah enclosures. On each, the female 

 stood to receive the male in the manner common to all quadrupeds." 



Mr. Sanderson's view is further supported by an observation recently reported, to the 

 effect that a tame performing Elephant, which subsequently gave birth to a calf, was on 

 two occasions observed to be covered by the male, and that " in the act of copulation 

 no peculiarity was observed that would distinguish Elephants from other animals"^. In 

 view of so great a diflFerence of statement on the part of eye-witnesses, it is not easy to 

 decide which is the more reliable. At the same time 1 may be permitted to observe 

 that the anatomical examination of the female organs in situ, certainly throws doubt 

 upon, if it does not altogether contradict, the possibility of the completion of the sexual 

 act so long as the female Elephant occupies the position usual among quadrupeds. 

 The views of Buffon, Crisp, and Slym are supported not only by an examination of the 

 female organs, but are further borne out by certain Indian sculptures, photographs of 



' Houel, plate x.,_/i(/!(iYs the external genital orifice as directed backward during sexual excitement; but 

 this, lilce others of his sketches, is far from being reliable. 



' Natural History by the Count de Buffon, translated into English, vol. vi. p. SO : Edinb. 1780. 



' Lancet, 1854, vol. ii. p. 448. 



' I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph FajTcr for enabling me to ascertain that Slym, in his work 

 ' Elephants and their Treatment in Health and Disease,' p. 5 (Moulmein, 187S), supports the view of Buffon 

 and Crisp with regard to the position of the female Elephant during sexual congress. 



* 'Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India,' p. 04. " Brit. ilcd. Journ. 1880 p. 5G0. 



