802 ON THE UROGENITAL ORGANS OF THE KANGAROO, 



which Poelman and Owen had met with in Halmaturus Bennettii, 

 and which he himself had met with in H. Billiardieri. 



In 1866 Alix * met with the open condition in a specimen of 

 H. Bennettii, and seemingly unaware of the papers mentioned 

 above, published this discovery as a new one. To this both 

 Owenf and PoelmanJ replied pointing out the facts of the 

 matter. From their replies the following extracts are made : 

 " Dans le Macropus, les culs-de-sac vaginaux communiquent 

 entre eux, et la cavite commune s'etend jusqu' au vestibule uretro- 

 genital, mais sans y deboucher. C'est ce que j'ai constate chez 

 des femelles de l'espece M. major, qui avaient fait des petits au 

 moins deux fois. Dans l'Halmaturus le cul-de-sac non seulement 

 atteint le fond du vestibule uretro-genital, mais il y debouche, 

 commeonTa montre depuis longtemps." — (Owen), and " J'ajou- 

 terai que, depuis la publication de ce travail (that is Poelman's 

 paper supra), j'ai eu l'occasion de verifier cette disposition 

 anatomique (that is the open condition) chez d'autres individus 

 appartenant a la meme espece, et en ce moment je ne conserve 

 plus aucun doute sur son existence constante." — (Poelman). 



In 1867 Prof Luca§ published an account of his investigations 

 made upon three females, two of which belonged to H. Bennettii 

 and the third to H. Billiardieri. The latter and one of the 

 former were adult, and in each case a direct communication 

 existed between the median vaginal cul-de-sac and the urogenital 

 passage. In the third example, which was a not full grown 

 specimen of H. Bennettii, Luca found no trace of an opening 

 either in the mucous membrane of the vaginal cul-de-sac, or in 

 that of the urogenital passage, and that the two mucous mem- 



* Paris, Acad. Sci. Compt. Ren. lxii., 1866, pp. 146-141 and Ann. Mag. 

 Na. Hist. 1866. 



t Paris, Acad. Sci. Compt. Rend., lxii., 1869. 



% Paris, Acad. Sci. Compt. Rend, lxii., 1866, pp. 399-400. 



§Der Zoologishe Garten, Frankfurt, Vol. viii., 1867. 



