of the Maynmary Organs of the Kangaroo. 81 



sequent period the more perfectly developed young animal has 

 ever been known to extract any nutritive fluid from the upper 

 and smaller teat. Unless therefore I have recourse to analogy, 

 and compare the smaller gland and teat with the supernumerary 

 mammae and nipples which we find in other animals, any theory 

 which I could suggest relative to their use must be founded 

 entirely upon conjecture. 



I have now concluded my anatomical description of the mam- 

 mary organs of the Kangaroo. At the time I was engaged 

 in the dissection of these organs, I was not aware that a de- 

 scription had already been published of one of the structures 

 described in this paper, — I allude to the compressing muscle 

 of the teat, — the existence of which has been noticed by M. 

 GeoftVoy St. Hilaire, in the Annates cles Sciences for 1826, who 

 has correctly described its use ; although, from the state in which 

 he appears to have received a small portion only of this parti- 

 cular part, his dissection does not seem to have afforded him an 

 opportunity of tracing the exact extent and attachment of the 

 muscle. 



With the exception, however, of the published account of 

 M. GeofFroy St. Hilaire's dissection of these muscular fibres, I 

 am not aware that any former anatomist has noticed the pecu- 

 liarities of structure which I have described as existing in the 

 mammary organs of the Kangaroo. Believing, therefore, that 

 many of the facts which I have detailed are entirely new, I have 

 been induced to present the foregoing account of my investiga- 

 tion to this Society, in the hope that by making them generally 

 known, I may be fortunate enough to draw the attention of 

 future physiologists more particularly to this interesting branch 

 of natural science. 



The facilities which in this country are affbrded to those who 

 may be inclined to undertake a course of experimental inquiries 



VOL. XVI. M upon 



