The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)

DEINSEA 8: 243-247 [ISSN 0932-9308]
Published 9 November 2001

C.W. Moeliker

Natuurmuseum Rotterdam

On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard ‘raped’ the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/papers/duck.pdf

A comparison of jump performances of the dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835)

Veterinary Parasitology
Volume 92, Issue 3, 1 October 2000, Pages 239–241

Marie-Christine Cadiergues [a], Christel Joubert [a], Michel Franc [b]

[a] Unité de Dermatologie-Parasitologie, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse 23, chemin des Capelles 31076, Toulouse cedex 3, France
[b] Unité Associée INRA de Physiopathologie et Toxicologie expérimentales, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse 23, chemin des Capelles 31076, Toulouse cedex 3, France

Abstract

Jump performances of Ctenocephalides canis and Ctenocephalides felis felis have been measured and compared on unfed young imagos. The mean length of the C. felis felis jump was 19.9±9.1 cm; minimum jump was 2 cm, and the maximum was one 48 cm. The C. canis jump was significantly longer (30.4±9.1 cm; from 3 to 50 cm). For height jump evaluation, grey plastic cylindric tubes measuring 9 cm in diameter were used. Their height was increasing from 1 to 30 cm by 1 cm. Groups of 10 fleas of the same species were deposited on the base of the tube. The number of fleas which succeeded in jumping above the tube was recorded. The mean height jump carried out by 50% of fleas was calculated after linearisation of the curves: it was 15.5 and 13.2 cm for C. canis and C. felis, respectively. The highest jump was 25 for C. canis and 17 cm for C. felis.

Keywords

Ctenocephalides canis; Ctenocephalides felis felis; Jump performance

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401700002740

Case report: sexual intercourse as potential treatment for intractable hiccups

Canadian Family Physician • Le Médecin de famille canadien
vol. 46 no. 8 1631-1632
August • Août 2000

Roni Peleg MD, Aya Peleg PHD

Dr R. Peleg is a Lecturer in the Department of Family Medicine and Dr A. Peleg is an Instructor in the Unit for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, both in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Hiccup is a pathologic respiratory reflex characterized by a spasm of one or both sides of the diaphragm, causing sudden inspiration and associated closure of the vocal cords. Accessory muscles of respiration are occasionally involved.

Hiccups are usually harmless and self-limiting. Cases have been reported, however, in which hiccups became intractable (singultus) causing insomnia, wasting, exhaustion, and even death. These consequences have prompted scientific scrutiny of an other-wise harmless curiosity.

We  report a case of intractable hiccups that began following treatment with corticosteroids and lasted for 3 days. The hic-cups ended immediately and completely following sexual intercourse.

[...]

Key points

•A 40-year-old man’s 4 days of continuous hiccuping ceased immediately following sexual intercourse.
•The mechanism of sympathetic stimulation similar to being startled has been proposed as an explanation.
•Nothing in the literature corroborates our finding.

Points de repère

•Le hoquet continuel pendant quatre jours d’un homme de 40 ans a cessé immédiatement après qu’il a eu une relation sexuelle.
•Le mécanisme de la stimulation sympathique, sem-blable à celui provoqué par la surprise, a été pro-posé comme explication.
•Rien dans les ouvrages scientifiques ne vient cor-roborer notre conclusion.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2144777/

Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal

BMJ 1999;319:1596
(Published 18 December 1999)
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1596

Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, associate professor of gynaecology [a],
Pek van Andel, physiologist [b],
Ida Sabelis, anthropologist [d],
Eduard Mooyaart, radiologist [c]

Author Affiliations

[a] Department of Gynaecology, University Hospital Groningen, PO Box 30 001, 9700 RB Groningen, Netherlands
[b] Laboratory for Cell Biology and Electron Microscopy, University Hospital Groningen
[c] Department of Radiology, University Hospital Groningen
[d] Department of Business Anthropology VU, De Boelelaan 1081C-NL, 1081 HV, Amsterdam

Abstract

Objective: To find out whether taking images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and to find out whether former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal are based on assumptions or on facts.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: University hospital in the Netherlands.

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was used to study the female sexual response and the male and female genitals during coitus. Thirteen experiments were performed with eight couples and three single women.

Results: The images obtained showed that during intercourse in the “missionary position” the penis has the shape of a boomerang and 1/3 of its length consists of the root of the penis. During female sexual arousal without intercourse the uterus was raised and the anterior vaginal wall lengthened. The size of the uterus did not increase during sexual arousal.

Conclusion: Taking magnetic resonance images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and contributes to understanding of anatomy.

Introduction

“I expose to men the origin of their first, and perhaps second, reason for existing.” Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) wrote these words above his drawing “The Copulation” in about 1493 (fig 1). The Renaissance sketch shows a transparent view of the anatomy of sexual intercourse as envisaged by the anatomists of his time. The semen was supposed to come down from the brain through a channel which can be seen in the spine of the man. In the woman the right lactiferous duct is depicted as originating in the right female breast and ending in the genital area. Even a genius like Leonardo da Vinci distorted men's and women's bodies—as seen now—to fit the ideology of his time and to the notions of his colleagues, who he paid tribute to.

The first careful study—since the sketch by Leonardo da Vinci—of the interaction of male and female human genitals during coitus was published by Dickinson in 1933 (fig 2). A glass test tube as big as a penis in erection inserted into the vagina of female subjects who were sexually aroused by clitoral stimulation (occasionally with a vibrator) guided him in constructing his pictorial supposition.

In the 1960s Masters and Johnson made their assessments with an artificial penis that could mechanically imitate natural coitus and by “direct observation”—the introduction of a speculum and bimanual palpation.

[...]

Acknowledgments

We thank our volunteers for their cooperation, laughter, and permission to publish intimate MR images of them; those hospital officials on duty who had the intellectual courage to allow us to continue this search despite obtrusive and sniffing press hounds; Professor J Kremer for his encouragement to use the scanner to study female sexology and for his critical reading the typescript; and Professor W Mali for offering the use of equipment at the University Hospital Utrecht. P van Andel does not want to be acknowledged for his idea of using MRI to study coitus. He excuses himself by quoting the French romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869): “C'est singulier! Moi, je pense jamais, mes idées pensent pour moi.”

http://www.bmj.com/content/319/7225/1596