BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.Sc. 801 



the supposed remains of the foetus, described as being situated 

 in the corpus uteri, (vaginal cul-de-sac) being nothing more than 

 a portion of the inspissated secretion commonly present both in 

 this sac and the lateral canals. The temporary orifice by which 

 the foetus is stated to pass immediately from the so-called corpus 

 uteri into the vagina (urogenital passage) does not exist." 



In the same distinguished observer's * notes (1834) on the 

 dissection of a female specimen of Meter opus Barry ii it is stated 

 that " the mesial cul-de-sac of the vagina did not extend quite 

 so far clown in M. Parryii, as it does in the better- known species." 



Professor Poelmanf of Ghent, published in 1851, an account 

 of his dissection of the female organs of Halmaturus Bennettii, 

 in which he states that the median vaginal canal communicated 

 freely with the urogenital sinus. 



In 1852 Prof. Owen % examined a female Dendrolagus inustus, 

 of which he says, " the lateral bent vaginal canals are shorter in 

 proportion than in the M. major : but the median cul-de-sac was 

 closed, as in that species." In the same paper the following 

 statement is made. " In a specimen of the M. Bennettii, which 

 I dissected in 1845, I detected a natural aperture of communica- 

 tion between the median cul-de-sac and the urogenital canal. I 

 had the pleasure of showing the specimen to Dr. Poelman,* * * 

 and of thus confirming the observation which he had, in- 

 dependently, made of a similar modification of the female 

 generative organs in a specimen of the Macropus Bennettii, 

 dissected by him at the University of Grand." 



In 1857 Vrolik § published a monograph on the anatomy of 

 Drendrolagus inustus, in which, speaking of the median cul-de-sac 

 he says that it was a blind sac without any trace of the opening 



* P.Z.S., Pt. ii., 1834, pp. 151-152. 

 tBull. de l'Acad. des Sci. de Belgique, Tome xviii., 1851, Pts. I. and II. 



JP.Z.S., Pt. xx., 1852, p. 106. 

 §Ontleedkundige Nasporingen omtrennt D. inustus. Amsterdam 1867. 



