Studies on Reproduction in the Monkey and Their Bearing on Gynecology and Anthropology1

THE OBJECT of this communication is to survey some studies that have been made on the physiology of reproduction in the monkey and to make an inventory of some of the facts of major significance which seem to have been useful to the gynecologist, student of human reproduction, on the one hand, and of interest to the anthropologist, student of human phylogeny, on the other. I. GENERALIZATIONS OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO GYNECOLOGY The Physiology of Menstruation It has been known since Saint′Hilaire and Cuvier (i) that monkeys menstruate at intervals corresponding to the human cycle. It required a century to prove that of all mammals it is only the primates that menstruate, and nearly as long to demonstrate that the estrous (intermenstrual) bleeding of cows and bitches is not the homologue of the menstrual flow (2). It follows, therefore, that monkeys and apes have become indispensable for the study of menstrual physiology and anatomy.