106 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



which however cannot be described as a monkey formation. 

 It consists of a prolongation of the prceputium clitoridis and of 

 the nymplice, which has first been described as peculiar to the 

 Bushwomen, in a memoir by Peron andLesueur, 1805. Obser- 

 vations on this subject by Miiller may be found in his Archiv., 

 1834,p.319. A similar excrescence hasbeen noticed by Sonnini, 1 

 and before him by Thevenot in Egypt and Abyssinia, where girls 

 are circumcised. This certainly cannot be considered as a proof, 

 for although the circumcision of girls prevails among many tribes 

 in Africa, especially in Sennaar and the surrounding regions 2 

 in Congo, among some of the Betschuana tribes, 3 it probably 

 refers only to the clitoris, which, according to Werne, 4 is com- 

 pletely extirpated in Bellad- Sudan. 



That this operation should be exclusively confined to the 

 Mohammedans in East Africa (as stated in "Nouv.ann.des voy.," 

 1835, iii, 172), is scarcely probable. It is also practised among 

 the Susus and Mandingos in the West. 5 The women of Pata- 

 gonia are said to have an uncommonly large clitoris (Foissac), 

 but no circumcision is practised. Nor can we, from the cir- 

 cumcision of the nymphse (which is common in the countries 

 on the Nile from the first cataract), conclude that there exists a 

 similar formation in these parts as in the Hottentot women. 

 Bosmann 6 however relates of the women of Wydah, that they 

 can be circumcised like the Hottentot women; and Adams 7 

 reports that in Dahomey the nymphae are artificially elongated. 

 Clarke also 8 observes that the women of Popo are distinguished 

 by uncommonly large nymphae and a large clitoris. A similar 

 artificially-produced deformity among the Mandan women is 

 described by Prince Max. 9 Among the women of the Bushmen, 



i " R. in Ober und Nieder &g." p. 300, 1800. 

 * " Bellad Sudan." 



3 Cailliaud, " Voy. & Meroe," ii, p. 278, 1826; Donville, " Voy. au Congo/ 

 i, pp. 66, 108, Stuttg., 1832 ; " Delegorgue," ii, p. 561. 



4 Feldzug von Sennaar, "Nach Taka," p. 201. 



5 Matthews, "B. nach S. Leone," p. 72, 1784. 



6 Viaggio in Guinea, trad, dal Franz., Ven.," iii, p. 88, 1752. 



7 "Remarks on the country east from C. Palmas to the R. Congo," p. 

 15, 1823. 



8 " S. Leone," p. 49, 1846. 



9 " E. in N. Am.," ii, p. 107. 



