120 PROF. M. WATSON ON THE ANATOMY OF THE 
cord (regarded by them as the hymen), apparently presented a similar appearance in 
one of the two specimens dissected by Stukeley’, whilst in those examined by the 
other anatomists above referred to not a trace of it was present. 
The differentiation of a secondary vagina in the Indian Elephant is not a little 
remarkable, inasmuch as physiologically this organ appears to be unnecessary, the 
functions of the secondary vagina being performed by the urino-genital canal; for, as 
long ago pointed out by John Hunter, into “the proper or, rather, uncommon vagina 
the penis cannot enter.” In respect of this differentiation the female organs of the 
Elephant differ materially from those of Hyena crocuta, which in other respects they 
so closely resemble; the combined Miillerian ducts in the last-named animal form 
uterus, and uterus alone, and the vagina is not differentiated from the uterus. 
When we compare the female organs of the Indian with those of the African Elephant, 
we find, taking into consideration the observations of Perrault and of Forbes on those 
of the latter, that the two species agree in almost every particular. Perrault® describes 
the cornua uteri of the African Elephant as being in contact for a distance of one foot, 
their lumina, however, being separated by means of a mesial septum much as in the 
Indian species. The two cornua, according to him, open separately into a common 
cavity, which, by reason of the relation which it bears to the uterus above and to the 
urino-genital canal below, we must regard as the secondary vagina. This organ, in his 
specimen, measured 18 inches in length, and opened below into the urino-genital canal. 
According to Forbes (and the observations of this anatomist I can in all points confirm), 
the cornua uteri lay in contact with one another for only 4} inches, and terminated 
below in a corpus uteri which measured 23 inches in length. The corpus uteri in turn 
opened into a secondary vagina, which in his specimen measured only 5? inches in length, 
and terminated posteriorly in the urino-genital canal, the diameter of the aperture 
of communication being much smaller than that of either of the canals between which 
it lies. It would appear, therefore, that in the animal dissected by Perrault the cornua 
uteri communicated directly by means of two separate orifices with the vagina, without 
the intervention of a unilocular corpus uteri similar to that described by Forbes. 
The presence or otherwise of a “corpus uteri,” as distinguished from the two cornua, 
does not appear to be a matter of much importance so far as the function of these parts’ 
is concerned, inasmuch as we know that in some animals the young are accommodated 
within and nourished by contact with the walls of the Jody, whilst in others they develop 
within the horns of the uterus. We may therefore regard the uterus and cornua utevi as 
different portions of the Miillerian ducts similarly modified in structure, in view of the 
performance of one and the same function. With respect to the vagina the case is 
widely different. It, like the uterus, is formed by the junction of the Miillerian ducts ; 
‘ See plate iii. of Stukeley ‘On the Spleen, to which is added some Anatomical Observations on the Dis- 
section of an Elephant :’ Lond. 1723. 
* Loe. cit. p. 133. 
