to M. Coste's Memoir. 197 



tected the allantois some weeks before M. Coste's arrival in 

 England, I needed only to have cited M. Gerbe's description 

 of the state of the parts when submitted to M. Coste in proof 

 of my claim, and in refutation of M. Coste's assertion than an 

 intact and undissected ovum had been submitted to him. 



I can assure the Academy that the importance given to M. 

 Coste's Memoir, by the formation of a commission to examine 

 its merits, has been my only inducement to notice any other 

 point in it than the one which Mr. Gerbe's description has 

 afforded me. As, however, I have entered upon the refutation 

 of as many parts of M. Coste's memoir, as it seemed to me 

 the commission would deem worthy of their attention, I shall, 

 before concluding, notice two other points in the letter of M. 

 Gerbe. He goes on to state, " Presque immediatement apres 

 mon arrivee dans le cabinet ou l'examen se faisait, M. R. Ow- 

 en nous quitta, et s'est en son absence que l'allantoide a ete 

 isolee des parties qui l'environnoient. Nous n'etions que M. 

 Coste et moi, lorsque cette decouverte a eu lieu." 



I left M. Coste to examine the allantois and the other 

 contents of the ovum which I had laid bare in my previous 

 dissection, because I had already satisfied my own curiosity 

 as to their nature. M. Coste must feel the utter futility of 

 his attempt to persuade any physiologist that I, than whom 

 no one could feel more interested in the dissection of a marsu- 

 pial ovum, would have absented myself at the instant the ex- 

 posure of its contents was about to take place, — at the very 

 moment of projection. I am much mistaken if the factitious 

 nature of M. Coste's first announcement of the discovery of 

 the allantois to the Academy, was not suspected by all his 

 hearers to whom I have the honour of being known, were it 

 only from the theatrical disposition of my exits and entrances, 

 so convenient, and indeed so essential, to M. Coste's undivid- 

 ed claims to the discovery of the allantois. I have already 

 stated that M. Coste had but to unfold with the forceps the 

 corrugations of the vesicular appendages before him to bring 

 them into view ; and that his description of the attachments 

 of the allantois is as inductive as that of the chorion. 



When I returned I found M. Coste and his artist gazing 

 with an air of surprise at the part before them, which, as it 

 respected M. Coste, somewhat surprised me, seeing that I had 

 already informed him of what he was about to witness. But 

 deeming his surprise to arise from his not having conceived 

 the possibility of an allantois being developed in the marsu- 

 pial ovum, I stated to him that its discovery had been no sur- 

 prise to me, seeing that it was " a peu pres ce que j'avais 

 suppose dans ma premiere memoire." 



