56 Zoological Society. 



edges of the flakes are not so deeply indented. The result is, that 

 the glandular secretion furnished by the Water-Bat appeared to us 

 to be mucus mixed with a small proportion of fatty odorous matter; 

 and there can be no doubt that the same is the case with the secre- 

 tions of the glands of the Shrews. 



" Now there remains an experiment to be made by the Zoological 

 Society, but principally by Mr. Owen, animated like myself with 

 zeal for scientific truth ; and which I invite my colleagues to make. 

 Alcohol does not alter the form of the elementary molecules, either 

 of milk or of mucus. Mr. Owen has deposited in the Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons his anatomical preparations; it is easy, 

 without damaging the preparations, to take from the monotrematie 

 apparatus a small quantity of its secretion, and to place it in the 

 field of a microscope. An answer will thus be obtained, of which I 

 admit beforehand all the consequences. 



" The negative characters indicated above, (no conglobate tissue, 

 no erectile tissue, no nipples,) are remarkable concessions on the part 

 of Mr. Owen. He might have advanced still further in the same 

 direction, and not have accepted, for example, from Lieut. Maule 

 his milky fluid only, reserving himself to combat afterwards what 

 that observer says de visu of the shells in the nest, and rejecting also 

 the opinion of the country in favour of the oviparous character of 

 the Monotremata. 



" But I will not return here to all the accessory points of the con- 

 troversy -. I pass to Mr. Owen's observations in reply. 



" Firstly, To destroy the effect of the analogy of the glands of 

 the Shrews, to which I had referred the glands of the Mono! remain, 

 Mr. Owen cites the authority of VonBaer, who in the Archives of 

 Anatomy and Physiology, published at Leipzig in 1827. p. 168, had 

 combated my views, in order to support the opinions of his friend 

 and fellow-countryman Meckel, remarking that, proceeding from 

 analogy to analogy, that of the Cetacea must also be taken into con- 

 sideration. Von Baer says that the structure of the glands of the 

 Ornithorhynchus, as described and figured by Meckel, reminded 

 him in all particulars of the mammary glands of the Cetacea ; and 

 actually refers to a similar arrangement in the Porpoise. Now, adds 

 this learned anatomist, ' it has never entered into the mind of any 

 man to deny the Porpoise to be a lactiferous animal.' It is true 

 that nobody has hitherto raised a doubt on this point; but it would 

 not be by any means extraordinary if we were obliged to do so now, 

 if it were certain, as I believe, that the monotrematie glands of the 

 Ornithorhynchus give rise to a new mode of nutrition as regards the 

 young. For if this were the fact, the Cetacea would participate in 

 this new mode, in these new functions, which it will become ulte- 

 riorly necessary to determine better, inasmuch as offering an inter- 

 mediate generation, viz. between that proper to the Monotremata, 

 and a third sort, that of the Ovovivipara, (that is to say of the Sharks 

 and Rays,) the eggs of which are hatched either within or without 

 the body of the mother, they would furnish facts of the same rank as 

 those of the vipers and other snakes, and would not offer such im- 



