516 DR. M. WATSON ON THE SPOTTED HY^NA. [May 3, 



2. Additional Observations on the Anatomy of the Spotted 

 Hy^na. By M. Watson, M.D., F.Z.S., Professor of 

 Anatomy, the Owens College, Manchester. 



[Received March 21, 1881.] 



(Plate XLIX.) 



On former occasions 1 have laid before this Society the results of 

 observations on the anatomy of the male' and female^ organs of 

 HycBna crocuta ; and having, through the kindness of Mr. Sclater, 

 had an opportunity of again submitting to anatomical examination 

 the carcasses of two additional specimens of this remarkable animal 

 which died in the menagerie of the Society during last summer, 

 I desire to record some supplementary observations made at that time. 

 The specimens referred to were both full-grown and of large size. 

 One was a female, which had on several occasions given birth to 

 young while in the Society's collection, whilst the other was a male. 

 All examination of the genital organs of this female whilst perfectly 

 fresh, served to explain several difficulties to which I drew attention 

 in my previous communication with regard to the alteration which 

 these organs undergo during the process of parturition. The organs 

 which I formerly described being those of a virgin, I now lay before 

 the Society the results of a comparative examination of these with 

 the organs of a mature female. 



Female. 



With respect to the form and arrangement of the ovaries, Fallo- 

 pian tubes, and uterus, I have nothing to add to what has already 

 been stated in the paper referred to, beyond the fact that on slitting 

 open the body of the uterus, 1 could distinguish about the middle 

 in length of that organ two very slightly projecting folds of mucous 

 membrane, which I failed to recognize in my first specimen, and 

 which ought possibly to be regarded as indicating the position of 

 the OS uteri. If this view be correct, then the lower half of the 

 corpus uteri of my former paper must be regarded as the morpho- 

 logical equivalent of the vagina. At the same time the very small 

 size of these folds, the absence of any structural difference in 

 character of the mucous membrane lining the two portions of the 

 canal, and the similarity in thickness of the muscular coat of 

 both throw doubt upon this interpretation — a doubt which can 

 only be satisfactorily dispelled by an examination of the parts in a 

 pregnant female, and the consequent determination of the position of 

 the young in utero. 



In the second female dissected the urinogenital canal differed much 

 in several particulars from that of the virgin. In the latter 

 the extremity of the clitoris is perforated by " a single canal of so 

 small a size, that one is at first sight inclined to believe that 



1 P. Z. S. 1878, p. 416. 2 P. Z. S. 1877, p. 369. 



