It only begins to
appear among the higher mammals in whom reproduction is already
beginning to take on the characters which become fully developed
in man. Various authors have found traces of a rudimentary hymen,
not only in apes, but in elephants, horses, donkeys, bitches,
bears, pigs, hyenas, and giraffes. (Hyrtl, _Op. cit._, vol. ii,
p. 189; G. Gellhoen, "Anatomy and Development of the Hymen,"
_American Journal Obstetrics_, August, 1904.) It is in the human
species that the tendency to limitation of offspring is most
marked, combined at the same time with a greater aptitude for
impregnation than exists among any lower mammals. It is here,
therefore, that a physical check is of most value, and
accordingly we find that in woman alone, of all animals, is the
hymen fully developed.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] "Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," in vol. iii of these _Studies_.
[73] "The accomplishment of no other function," Hyrtl remarks, "is so
intimately connected with the mind and yet so independent of it."
[74] The process is still, however, but imperfectly understood; see Art.
"Fecondation," by Ed. Retterer, in Richet's _Dictionnaire de Physiologie_,
vol.
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