128 PROF. M. WATSON ON THE ANATOMY OF THE 
the urine is ordinarily 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 i situ is taken into consideration. These authors had appa- 
rently 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 én 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 difference of statement on the part of eye-witnesses, it is not easy to 
decide which is the more reliable. At the same time I 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 
1 Houel, plate x., figures the external genital orifice as directed backward during sexual excitement; but 
this, like others of his sketches, is far from being reliable. 
? Natural History by the Count de Buffon, translated into English, vol. vi. p. 89: Edinb. 1780. 
3 Lancet, 1854, vol. ii. p. 448. 
* I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Fayrer for enabling me to ascertain that Slym, in his work 
‘Elephants and their Treatment in Health and Disease,’ p. 5 (Moulmein, 1878), 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. 94. ° Brit. Med. Journ. 1880 p. 566. 
