80 Mr. Moncaw's Description 
deavoured to assign a cause for the changes which I have met 
with in these parts in the living animal, it now merely remains 
for me to describe the appearances which presented themselves 
in the dissection of the smaller gland and teat. 
This gland, as I have before stated, is not possessed of any 
great degree of vascularity. Its coverings, as well as those of 
the smaller teat, are very similar to the investments of the larger 
organ, but considerably less distinct. From its close connection 
with the marsupial gland, it derives in common with that organ 
a strong covering from the compressing muscle of the mamma; . 
but the compressing muscle of the teat consists of a few scattered 
fibres only, which cannot without difficulty be distinguished from 
the surrounding cellular membrane, beneath which a very small 
and delicate vascular plexus is situated, extending, as in the 
larger marsupial teat, from the extremity of the nipple to its 
base, forming a close investment around the excretory ducts of 
the gland (fab. 8. f. 1. c.). These ducts are extremely minute in 
size, from fifteen to twenty in number, and closely resemble in 
their course and distribution through the gland, the larger ducts 
of the marsupial teat (tab. 8. f. 1. a.). The veins and arteries 
of the smaller are closely connected with those of the larger 
gland ; and the two organs so nearly resemble each other in their 
: anatomical characters, that they can only be said to differ in size 
and in vascularity. 
With regard, however, to the use of the smaller gland and 
teat, this is a point upon which I am unable to arrive at any 
satisfactory conclusion. I have never found the slightest altera- 
tion in the condition of these parts during any of the different 
periods of gestation. The young animal.is never attached to 
the smaller nipple during the first period of its existence in the 
pouch; nor have I ever been able to ascertain (although I have 
taken much trouble to investigate this subject) that at any sub- 
sequent 
