From our point of view, however, it is the possible physiological function of this structure that is interesting. It seems impossible to conclude otherwise than that in existing races it has practically no functional value. Its atrophy as the result of sexual congress not only is no bar to sexual relations, but removes an unpleasant impediment. In many races the structure is removed as soon as possible. In some parts of China it is destroyed as part of the toilet of young children, and indeed many Chinese physicians are ignorant of its existence. A similar state of affairs occurs in some parts of India. In Brazil, among the tribe of Machacuras, virgins, in the European sense, do not exist, for the mothers destroy the hymen in female children soon after birth. In Kamchatka the aborigines regard it as disgraceful to be married with the hymen intact, and the mothers operate on their daughters.[94] Among other races, again, the disagreeable duty of defloration is assigned to special persons. Among the natives of the Philippines there formerly existed well-paid public officials the duty of whom was to destroy the virginity of the girls and so to make marriage pleasanter for the husbands. A similar custom occurs among the inhabitants of New Caledonia, and Moncelon states that there virginity is held in little esteem. “I have proof of the curious circumstance,” he wrote, “that when a husband shrinks from destroying the virginity of his wife, he employs some one from a regular profession to take his place.” Such examples, selected from amongst many, may be taken as proof that even such a peculiar and recently acquired organ has not a physiological use. On the other hand, especially among Christians and Mahomedans, the existence of the hymen in an intact condition is regarded as very important. The ancient Jews began to set a high value on virginity. According to the old Mosaic law, if, at the time of her marriage, a young girl were found to be no longer a virgin, “Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die; because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house” (Deut. xxii. 21). The religions that have sprung from Judaism have retained this old view of virginity, although in an attenuated form. Among some Christian peoples, material proofs of virginity at the time of marriage are demanded, and among some Mahomedans such proofs are exhibited to friends and relations on the day after marriage. However, the actual defloration is not always left to the husband, but among Arabs and Copts and amongst the natives of Egypt, the operation is performed by a specially selected matron.[95]