PERINyEAL GLANDS OF MELES VULGARIS. 291 



fectly distinct j^lanrl, the secretion of which is emptiecT into a pocket back of 

 the anus, just beneath the root of the taiL 



1. Anal glands. — The pjirts present, near the termination of the rectura, as 

 appendages at its sides, two oval slightly recurved masses, 20'^^"' long and 

 about half as broad in the middle. Upon the slightest pressure, a liquid 

 gushes from the two excretory x>ores, which open at the sides of the anus at 

 the bottom of well-marked recesses. This substance is very viscid, of arosy- 

 yeHow cok)r, and extremely fetid ; it is almost entirely soluble in sulphuric 

 ether, and contains numerous: fatty particles and epithelial remains. The 

 two glands are embedded in adipose tissue, and entirely covered with a 

 muscular tunic arising from the anal muscles, especially the retractor. The 

 secretory portion is of the same general character as in allied species ; the 

 tissue enveloping the culs-de-sac is principally of laminated, fibres, strength- 

 ened, however, by elastic ones; the diameter of the culs-de-sac is from 0.04 to 

 COd""™. On longitudinal section of the gland, the centre is seen to be occu- 

 pied by a large reservoir lined with a delicate brownish membrane, much 

 as in other Carnivores. The product of secretion is turned by a small open- 

 ing into a rather narrow duct, leading to the external orifice already indi- 

 cated. 



2. Glands of the stttcaudal poucli. — In the Badger, as in the Porcin and 

 domesticated Carnivores, the rectum is attached to the sacrum and first coc- 

 cygeal bones by a strong muscular band, which, in the present species, leaves 

 the rectum at a point 25™"^^ from the insertion of the anal glands, at an 

 angle of about 60° from the axis of the intestine, and proceeds to its inser- 

 tion upon the sacro-coccygeal bones. At a point in front of the insertion of 

 this muscle is found a deeply bilobate mass, apparently formed of two sepa- 

 rate glands, each of oval shape, and apposed along a flat internal face, the 

 exterior surface being convex and lobate ; but the organ is really single, as 

 it has but one receptacle for the product of all the follicular portion of the 

 apparatus. This is a new glandular organ peculiar to the coccygeal region . 

 Each moiety measures 24™™ in depth with an average breadth of 11™'"; for 

 the rest, they are embedded in abundant adipose tissue, and the surface is 

 whitish and papillate. The secretory portion is about 2™™ thick ; it is com- 

 posed of follicles, each comprising a large number of culs-de-sac, of an aver- 

 age diameter of 0.06™™, lined with polyhedral epithelial cells. The product 

 of secretion is received in an extremely large central sac, the surface of which 

 is furnished throughout with numerous short, stiff, brownish hairs. This sac 

 is distended with a yellowish fetid substance mixed with numerous hairs, 

 like the viverreum of the Civet. This central reservoir may be regarded as 

 the beginning of the pocket which opens beneath the tail ; it communicates 

 freely, and, in fact, is part of one and the same cavity. 



In the female, it is observed that the end of the genital organs and the rec- 

 tum form, by their union, a kind of cloacal vestibule, in front of which is 

 the clitoris, with the urethra immediately below. Beneath this sexual por- 

 tion of the vestibule is the orifice by which the rectum opens externally, 

 after receiving at its sides the excretory ducts of the anal glands. Finally, 

 back of these parts, is a broad transverse depression, — the subcaudal pouch ; 

 it measures 23™™ across. The anal glands are 18™™ long and about 9™™ 

 broad ; they are club-shaped, and quite similar to those of the male. To the 

 subcaudal pouch there is also attached a secretory apparatus like that 

 already described, but smaller; its internal structure is the same. 



