Female Echidna of New Holland, 131 



neriaii Society a short time after the dissections were completed, 

 rendered it extremely probable, that the functions heretofore as- 

 signed to the spur were purely hypothetical, and that this wa& 

 really a very formidable instrument of offence and defence, be- 

 longing to the male of these different species of animals ; but 

 the original opinion relative to the functions of the spur was 

 not to be given up so easily; and accordingly we find, that Sir 

 Everard Home, the original promulgator of the doctrine, still 

 defends the opinion in a very ingenious manner. He observes, 

 in the third volume of his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 

 that contrivances of this kind are not uncommon : his words are 

 as follows : — '' In the toad and frog, the fore-legs of the male 

 are applied round the belly of the female for that purpose. In 

 the shark there are regular holders, as will be shewn. In the. 

 earth-worm it is effected by suction, as will be explained. In 

 the Dytiscus marginalis, an insect that copulates under water, 

 there is an apparatus mentioned in the seventh lecture, more 

 nearly allied than any other to the present apparatus ; on the 

 thigh of the male, there are suckers which attach the animal to 

 the female. Having ascertained that a secretion is emitted 

 through the spur, and the parts being so minute as to require glas- 

 ses of considerable power, I got Mr Bauer to examine the socket 

 of the female ; and, after overcoming considerable difficulties, the 

 parts being very much corrugated, and yet retaining their elas- 

 ticity, he made out the form of this socket, which corresponds 

 exactly in shape with the spur itself, so that, when completely 

 introduced, it must be so grasped, that the male would not be 

 able to withdraw it, when the coitus was over ; in this respect re- 

 sembling the effect of suction. The male, it would appear, at 

 least this is the best conjecture I can make by reasoning from 

 analogy, there being no facts to guide us, by throwing some of 

 the secretion of the gland of the thigh into the socket, dilates it, 

 and releases the spur. The liquor injected being acrimonious, 

 will also irritate the female, and make her use efforts to escape. 

 This is exactly similar to what is performed in the cupping- 

 glass apparatus by muscular action, to let in the air.'"' 



A single fact, however, respecting the anatomy of the female 

 echidna, renders this very ingenious theory almost inadmis- 

 sible : for the opportunity of making this discovery, we are 



