384 Miscellaneous. 
vermiform body, of 15 millims. in length and 5 millims. in thick- 
ness, through the walls of the muzzle of a large Kangaroo, buried at 
one time in the vestibule, and at another in the bottom of the 
marsupial pouch. But the transportation of the foctus and its at- 
tachment to the teat being the result of similar operations, I deter- 
mined to apply to them a new test, by means of an experiment 
which I proposed to the authorities of the Zoological Society, and 
for which I obtained their sanction. 
A few hours after parturition I removed the young animal from 
the teat and witnessed the following phenomena :— 
The mother immediately showed symptoms of uneasiness, stooping 
down to lick the orifice of the vagina and bury her muzzle in the 
vestibule. At length she grasped the sides of the pouch with her 
fore paws, and drawing them apart, she thrust her head into the 
cavity as far as the eyes, and could be seen moving it about in various 
directions in the act of replacing the feetus*. 
I do not know whether a Mr. Bennett has really suspected these 
facts. It is possible; but M. Alix cites neither work nor memoir. 
Mr.E. J. Bennett was Assistant Secretary of the Zoological Society in 
1834, Mr. N.A. Vigors was Secretary, Messrs, Yarrell and W. S. Mac- 
leay were Members of Council ; they were all present at my experi- 
ments, and accepted the consequences which I drew from them. But 
not one of these friends (now, alas! no more) flattered himself with 
having foreseen the results ; not one of them pretended to any other 
part than that of a spectator. 
Dr. George Bennett, of Sydney, has furnished me with valuable 
materials for my investigations, and we are indebted to him for an 
article on the habits of the Ornithorhynchus+; but I am not aware 
that he has published any notice or memoir upon the parturition of 
the Kangaroos. 
In point of fact, M. Alix only cites an article of an Encyclopeedia. 
Ifhe had consulted original memoirs, from which articles of this nature 
are usually only abridged compilations, he would have saved me the 
trouble which I am now taking. If he will permit me to refer him to 
the first observation on Marsupial parturition published after the 
Memoir of 1834 in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ part 
xii. p. 163 (1844), he will there find the details of an observation of 
this operation in a Potoroo (Bettongia), reported by the late Earl of 
Derby, then President of the Zoological Society. 
I hope that M. Alix will not allow himself to be discouraged by 
the fact that his supposed anatomical discovery has been anticipated 
by at least two observers. The field of nature is so vast and so 
varied, that by persevering in direct cultivation of it, he cannot fail 
to raise for himself a title to our gratitude by gathering in fruits at 
once new and solid. But it is very rarely that, by means of an 
isolated anatomical fact, we can rectify or determine the physiology 
S 
of a complex organ.— Comptes Rendus, April 1866, pp. 592-596. 
* See Phil. Trans. 1834, p- 345. 
Tt Trans. Zool. Soe. vol. i. 1834. 
