G58 0:S THE UEOGEXITAL ORGAXS OF THE KANGAEOO, 



While then so far as the post partum absence of a direct com- 

 munication in M. major is concerned, mj observations agree with 

 what Professor Owen, has described, yet in regard of the extent 

 to which the cul-de-sac is continued backwards, and of its relation 

 to the urogenital passage, my specimens, w^ithout exception, 

 differ from the specimen described and figured by the same great 

 anatomist as well as from the very similar one examined by Brass. 

 Professor Owen's account is this: *" In the specimen examined 

 by me, this part of the vagina (cul-de-sac) was not continuous 

 by means of its proper tissue with the urogenital canal, but was 

 connected thereto by areolar tissue." In Brass's figure the break 

 is even more marked. All my specimens differ from both these, 

 not only in respect of the increased backward extension of the 

 cul-de-sac, but also in its acquiring a much more intimate relation, 

 both with the tissue of the urogenital canal as well as with that 

 of the bladder and urethra. In Professor Owen's figure the 

 ventral wall of the cul-de-sac and of the urogenital canal along 

 with the bladder and its attachment have been dissected away, 

 while in that of Brass the specimen is seen intact from the dorsal 

 aspect and shews no connection between the tissue of the bladder 

 and urethra and that of the cul-de-sac, quite different from any 

 thing that has come under my observation. 



Clearly in those species in which a direct communication 

 prevails, the tissue of the median 2:)ortion of the vagina must be 

 continuous with that of the urogenital passage. A similar con- 

 dition was described in the second specimen of M. major 

 mentioned in the paperf already quoted. Prom the examination 

 of a large number of sections from this region of the urogenital 

 organs as well as from the careful examination of over twenty 

 specimens, there would seem to be very intimate relation between 

 the tissues of the two chambers in all my specimens. Morc- 



* Comp. Anat., vol. iii., p. 083. 

 t P.Z.S., 1881, p. 387. 



