571 



OX THE ORGAN OF JACOBSON IN AN AUSTRALIAN 

 BAT (2nXI0PTERUS). 



By R. Broom, M.D., B.Sc. 



(Plate XLVii.) 



In the course of a recent investigation of certain details in the 

 comparative anatomy of Jacobson's Organ, the results of which I 

 have embodied in a thesis recently presented to Glasgow Uni- 

 versity, I discovered in the common little Australian bat, besides 

 a number of other interesting points, a well-developed organ of 

 Jacobson. 



Jacobson's Organ, as is well known, is found in the large 

 majority of Mammals — from the Monotremata, where it is greatly 

 developed, to man, where it is rudimentary. In the majority of 

 orders it is typically present, but in the higher forms it is 

 frequently absent. Herzfeld,"^ who has examined a very con- 

 siderable varietj^ of animals, found it quite absent in two Old 

 World Monkeys, Cercopithecus and Imcus, though present in 

 the New World genus, Hapcde, and also in the Lemur. Among 

 the Chiroptera he found the organ to be absent in the flying-fox 

 ( Pteropus edwardsi), and also absent in a native (German) bat, of 

 which unfortunately the species was not determined. From these 

 observations it has naturally been concluded that the organ is 

 absent in the order CJdroptera. 



Since giving notice of the present communication, and on the 

 eve of sending it off. Dr. Elliott Smith, has kindly called my 

 attention to a paper just recently published on the Organ of 

 Jacobson in the Chiroptera by Mm. Duval and Garnaultf. In 



* P. Herzfeld, "Ueherdas .Jacobson'sche Organ des Menschen and der 

 Saiigethiere." Zool. Jahrh. 1889. 



+ M. Duval and P. Garnault, " L'organe de Jacobson des Chiropteres " ; 

 Conipt. Rend. Hebd. des Stances de la Society de Biologie, x. Ser. 28 June, 

 1895. 



