the _rima pudendi_ as a long narrow fissure. Whatever the
form, the labia close more tightly together in virgins and in
young individuals generally than in the deflowered and the
elderly. In children, as Martineau pointed out, the vulva appears
to look directly forward and the clitoris and urinary meatus
easily appear, while in adult women, and especially after
attempts at coitus have been made, the vulva appears directed
more below and behind, and the clitoris and meatus more covered
by the labia majora; so that the child urinates forward, while
the adult woman is usually able to urinate almost directly
downwards in the erect position, though in some cases (as may
occasionally be observed in the street) she can only do so when
bending slightly forwards. This difference in the direction of
the stream formerly furnished one of the methods of diagnosing
virginity, an uncertain one, since the difference is largely due
to age and individual variation. The main factor in the position
and aspect of the vulva is pelvic inclination. (See Havelock
Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth edition, p. 64; Stratz, _Die
Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, Chapter XII.) In the European
woman, according to Stratz, a considerable degree of pelvic
inclination is essential to beauty, concealing all but the
anterior third of the vulva. In negresses and other women of
lower race the vulva, however, usually lies further back, being
more conspicuous from behind than in European women; in this
respect lower races resemble the apes. Those women of dark race,
therefore, whose modesty is focused behind rather than in front
thus have sound anatomical considerations on their side.

As Ploss and Bartels remark, a very common variation among
European women consists in an unusually posterior position of the
vulva and vaginal entrance, so that unless a cushion is placed
under the buttocks it is difficult for the man to effect coitus
in the usual position without giving much pain to the woman. They
add that another anomaly, less easy to remedy, consists in an
abnormally anterior position of the vaginal entrance close
beneath the pelvic bone, so that, although intromission is easy,
the spasmodic contraction of the vagina at the culmination of
orgasm presses the penis against the bone and causes intolerable
pain to