REPRODUCTIVE HISTORY OF THE MOLE, 193 
considerable length and.very much resembles the penis of the 
male, is pierced for the passage of urine, and thus constitutes a 
true urinary penis, Beyond this is a transverse slit of a slightly 
erescentic form which constitutes the opening of the vagina. 
There are none of those duplicatures of the integument which in 
other mammalia constitute the labia and nymphe, but the skin 
is smooth. But one of the most curious points in the structure 
of these parts is that in the virgin state this vaginal aperture does 
not exist, the skin being perfectly and tightly drawn over the 
entrance ; so that there are in this state but two openings, the 
urethral and the intestinal. So perfectly is this the case that it 
is very difficult to know a virgin female mole from the male by 
mere external examination, As this covering is so tense, the 
utility of the little bone at the extremity of the penis in the male 
is very obvious, and its pointed and tapering form is at once 
accounted for; for it is clearly intended to perforate this tense 
covering to the vagina.” 
After another thirty years the subject is again brought forward, 
in the form of references to Bell’s article, by Owen in his ‘ Com- 
parative Anatomy of the Vertebrates’ (3). But Owen’s plain 
statement that “‘ the mole shows a complete closure of the vaginal 
orifice in the virgin state” tended rather to suggest that nothing 
more strange than an unusual development of the hymen ac- 
counted for the condition. The fact that no vaginal orifice existed 
was rather lost sight of in the suggestion that the outlet was 
merely closed in the virgin state. By 1868, therefore, this extra- 
ordinary discovery had found its place, but only as a brief 
allusion, and in a rather modified form, in the standard work on 
comparative anatomy ; and it still rested apparently entirely upon 
the isolated investigations of Geoffroy carried out forty years 
before. 
So far as I can ascertain the whole question was then practically 
lost sight of, or forgotten, until 1902, when Lionel E. Adams, 
after a wide experience of work asa field-naturalist, read a paper, 
entitled ‘‘ A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Mole,” before 
the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. To the older 
work of Geoffroy, Adams added original observations based on a 
very wide first-hand knowledge of the mole; and in addition 
to describing in detail the naked-eye external changes which 
accompany the formation of the vagina, it was made clear that 
this vaginal development was in a way spontaneous and not 
due to any action of the male. 
The work of Adams was published in 1903 (4); it remains the 
standard account of the progress of this wonderful change, and 
as such is referred to in most recent works on zoology. Quoting 
from his original paper, the results are summarised as follows :— 
‘“‘ My observations show that about March Ist a wrinkle appears 
at the base of the clitoris which in a few days assumes a purple 
hue, and by the middle of March a perforation appears in this 
livid wrinkle on each side of the middle line. Towards the end 
Proc. Zoo. Soc.—1914, No, XIII, 13 
° 
