80 ■ Mr. Morgan'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 sti'ong 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 (tab. Q.f. I.e.). 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. /. 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 difl'er 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 1 have 

 taken much trouble to investigate this subject) that at any sub- 

 sequent 



