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IV. A Description of the Mammary Organs of the Kangaroo. 

 By John Morgan, Esq., F.L.S. 



Read April 15, and May 6, 1828. 



i- 

 The development and growth of the fcEtus in marsupial ani- 

 mals has long afforded an interesting subject of inquiry for the 

 researches of the physiologist ; yet, notwithstanding the nume- 

 rous opportunities for observation supplied by the domestication 

 of the most interesting of these animals, namely, the Kangaroo, 

 it is to be regretted that hardly any information has of late years 

 been obtained upon this important branch of natural science ; 

 for although we are acquainted with a few insulated facts rela- 

 tive to this subject, yet we are at present left in total ignorance 

 respecting the principal object of our researches. We know 

 little or nothing of the nature of those changes which must 

 necessarily take place in the young while remaining in the 

 uterus, or of the mode by which it is conveyed from that part 

 to the teat : and dissection has hitherto afforded us no satisfac- 

 tory information relative to the peculiarity of structure, which 

 we may reasonably expect to find in those organs, by which 

 the mother is enabled to impart nourishment to the foetus, either 

 while remaining in the wOmb, or afterwards, when attached to 

 the nipple within the pouch. With the view, therefore, of 

 affording assistance to those future inquirers, whose time may 

 be devoted to the study of this particular subject, and whose 

 opportunity for observation may be greater than my own, I am 



induced 



