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Miuch 12. 1833. 

 The President, Lord Stanle3% in the Chair. 



A letter was read, addressed to the Vice-Secretary by M. GeofFroy- 

 Saint-Hilaire, For. Memb. Z. S., and dated Paris, March 5, 1833. 

 It acknowledges the receipt of the copy of the letter of Lieut. the Ho- 

 nourable Lauderdale Maule to Dr. Weatherhead respecting the Orni- 

 thorhynchus , and statės that the writer has ])roposed a system calcu- 

 lated to put an end to the controversy resjjecting these animals. This 

 system is contained in a " Memoir on the Abdominal Glands of 

 the OrnithorhyncJms, falsely presumed to be mammaiy, but which 

 secrete, not milk, but mucus, destined for the first nutriment of the 

 young, when newly hatched," published in the ' Gazette Medicale,' 

 under the date of Feb. ISth. A copy of the Memoir was laid on the 

 table, and an abstract of it \vas read. 



M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire translates the \vhole of Lieut. Maule's 

 letter, and ąuotes also Mr. Owen's obsen'ations on the Mammary 

 glands of Echidna, from the Proceedings ot the Committee of Science 

 and Correspondence. He then enters into some details on the history 

 of our knowledge of the Monotremata, and on the various opinions which 

 have been held respecting their mode of generation, and the nutrition 

 of their young. Recurring to the very curious observation of Lieut. 

 Maule, he admits the cfFusion of a fluid of a milky appearance, but he 

 doubts that this fluid was ftctuidly milk. " To arrive so rapidly at this 

 decision," he proceeds, " many impossibilitics mušt have been for- 

 gotten. You have not the function, nor the result of the function 

 ■vvhich characterizes the Manimalia, if the organs that produce it are 

 truly wanting. Now this is \vhat I think I can demonstrate ; and 

 Avhat I undertake to do in the follo\ving remarks. 



" For this purpose I seek for analogous facts ; and they have long 

 pince been furnished to me by the Shreivs. There are on each side 

 of the bodies of these animals tw'o kinds of glands arranged parallel 

 to each other. Ist, IntemaUy, conglobate and truly lactiferous glands, 

 of the known structure : 2ndly, Externally, an apparatus formed of 

 caca, furnished \vith some membranous and diaphragmaticyrtEnre, and 

 "with many cellulosities. This apparatus, in the young statė and during 

 the inactivity of the sexual organ, consists onlyof a longitudinal projec- 

 tion without distinct characters ; but during the season of sexual cx- 

 citement, this projection becomes enlarged and is %'isibly surmounted 

 on its intemal surface by a multitude of small parallel cccca, dissemi- 

 nated over and attached to the glandular body, likę the bristles upon 

 a brush. These caca open on the projection made by the gland, which 

 on its tegumentary surface has but a single excretory orifice. The 

 secretion consists of a mucus possessing a very powerful odour. 

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