MEMOIR ON THE REPRODUCTION OF THE OPOSSUM. 159 



The young laid on the side — the body strongly flexed; and the delicate mamilla 

 was stretched as it extended from the mamma to the porulc which constitutes the stomal 

 orifice. 



They were of a deep rose tint; so that the interior of the marsupium looked red, from 

 the hue of their bodies. 



It was easy to observe, and to count by the watch, the number of respirations per 

 minute, of the young. 



Taking one of the young betwixt the finger and thumb, I pulled very strongly at it; so 

 violently that I feared to tear it in two, at the loins. The connexion was so strong that 

 the head came quite out of the marsupium before it at last let go of the teat, which 

 immediately retreated into the pouch. 



When the young one let go its hold the teat was cylindrical, and very long. There 

 was no bulb at the end — it was cylindrical all the way up to the mamma. 



Mr. Owen describes and figures a bulb at the end of the kangaroo teat. 



Upon carefully examining the mouth with a doublet, I found that no blood had fol- 

 lowed the avulsion, nor the smallest stain; but I feel quite certain that by jerking one off 

 suddenly the lip would be injured and torn; and I suppose that where blood has followed 

 the separation, in other cases, it was produced by too hasty a violence, lacerating the 

 mouth. The pore is so small that it cannot be well made out without a lens. One only 

 sees a shallow dimple. I made one bleed at the mouth by forcing into it the point of a 

 small camel hair pencil dipped in milk — which shows how tender is the tissue in the 

 early stage of existence. 



There was not, and had never been, any mesenteric or placcntoidal connexion of the 

 mouth and nipple. 



I removed this foetus at forty minutes past 7 o'clock, p. m., and put it in a watch glass, 

 to show it to my friends Dr. Nourse and Dr. Stockbridge, of Maine, and to Dr. J. F. 

 Mei^s of Philadelphia. 



The adjoining figure exhibits the appearance of 

 the young of the size of nature, with one magnified 

 about five diameters. 



It was carefully weighed in Mr. Bringhurst's 

 scale. The weight was just three grains and a 

 half. 



In Dr. Barton's specimens the smallest weighed 

 barely one grain; another, barely two grains; and 

 the remaining five, (taken together,) exactly seven 

 grains. — Letter to Roume, page 11. Docs this 

 discrepancy indicate thai mine were littered on 

 the 5th, and not on the 7th of March ' 



From the mouth to the end of the tail it was 

 eight-tenths of an inch long. 



The fore arm and paw measured one-tenth of an inch in length. 



