62 Mr. Morgan's Description 



induced to present to this Society a short account of an exami- 

 nation which I have recently made of the female Kangaroo, 

 both in the virgin and in the impregnated state ; with the hope 

 that the result of my dissection, which has enabled me to esta- 

 blish a few hitherto unknown facts, may tend to throw some 

 further light on the physiology of generation in marsupial 

 animals. 



In the beginning of October last I received for dissection 

 the body of a young female Kangaroo in a virgin state. On 

 opening the pouch of this animal, I found the whole of the 

 interior lubricated by a secretion of a reddish-brown colour, 

 somewhat viscid in its consistence, and of a faint and peculiar 

 odour. This condition of parts I have always observed to exist 

 in these animals during the periods at which the pouch remains 

 unoccupied by the young ; the secretion being very much dimi- 

 nished, or altogether suspended, at the time the young animal is 

 lodged within the part. -" ■ 



On slitting open the fore-part of the pouch and exposing its 

 interior, I was surprised to find that two nipples only were 

 developed, one on each side (tab. 2. f. 1. a.), and that imme- 

 diately beneath each of these a minute circular aperture, resem- 

 bling in appearance the mouth of a follicle, marked the situa- 

 tion in which we usually find the two additional teats in the 

 impregnated and adult animal (tab.^.f. 1. b.). This circum- 

 stance led me to examine more particularly the structure of the 

 mammary glands and parts immediately connected with them, 

 which, having been carefully removed from the body, presented 

 upon dissection the following appearances. 



The substance which appeared to form the mammary gland 

 was of a circular form, somewhat flattened, possessed of a con- 

 siderable degree of vascularity, and lobulated upon its external 



surface, 



