146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1879. 



PLACENTA OF MACACUS CYNOMOLOGUS. 

 BY HENRY C. CHAPMAN, M.D. 



Comparatively little is known concerning the fetal condition of 

 monkeys. In those of the New World (Platyrhina) the placenta 

 is single. As regards the Anthropoids the placentation in the 

 Gorilla and Ourang is unknown; in the Chimpanzee the organ is 

 single ; in the Hylobates it is double. In the remaining Old World 

 monkeys (Catarhina) the placenta is usually described as being 

 double. Thus Prof. Owen observes, "in the tailed Catarhina the 

 placenta is double, the two being distinct and apart." 1 According 

 to Prof. Milne Edwards, "chez les autres singes de l'ancien con- 

 tinent cet organe est divise en deux lobes bien distincts." 2 Prof. 

 Huxley states, "that the placenta is often bilobed." 3 In the genera 

 Nasalis, Semnopithecus, Cercopithecits, according to Breschet, 4 

 and in the Macacus nemestrinus, according to Prof. Rolleston, 5 

 the placenta is double. In the case of the Macacus nemeslrinus 

 I have confirmed Prof. Rolleston's observation in two instances- 

 Having recently made a post-mortem examination of a pregnant 

 Macacus cynomolgus, which died at the Philadelphia Zoological 

 Garden, of phthisis, I was surprised to find on opening the uterus 

 that the placenta was single, contrary to what might have been 

 expected. As the opportunity rarely presents itself of examining 

 in situ the foetus and membranes of a monkey, it appears to me 

 proper to communicate the results of my dissection. In opening 

 the uterus I found that it measured from side to side 7 inches, 

 and was |th inch thick. The placenta, single and discoid in form, 

 measured 3.V inches in its longest diameter, and 2^ inches in its 

 shortest. The umbilical cord was 7 inches in length and consisted 

 of the umbilical vein and the two hypogastric arteries. The um- 

 bilical vein passed into the liver of the foetus, and the hypogastric 

 arteries into the internal iliacs. The foetus measured, from crown 

 of head to tail, 6 inches, the tail itself measuring 7 inches. In 



' Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii., p. 748. 



2 Anatomie Comparee, Tome neuvieme, p. 554. 



* Anatomy of Vertebrates, p. 402. 



* Etudes sur l'ceuf. s Trans, of Zool. Society, 1865. 



