ECHIDNA. 



379 



it happens to pass through that stage, in order Unit 

 the learned may escape the charge of playing the 

 cuckoo, by laying the egg in the wrong nest. 



Before the discovery of the egg, Francis Bauer, 

 perhaps the finest microscopic dissector and painter 

 of the ago, at least since the death of his brother 

 Ferdinand, had given it as his opinion that these ani- 

 mals must be mammalia and not birds. He arrived at 

 this conclusion by a careful examination of the ovaries 

 of the female, which he found, both in their own struc- 

 ture and in that of the rudirnental ova which they 

 contained, were of the mammalia character, and by 

 no means that of a bird. This was going to the 

 fountain head, and going there most philosophically; 

 but the discovery, though perfectly sound and philo- 

 sophical, because in strict accordance with the whole 

 system of nature, was too fine for the eyes even of 

 philosophers, and as Bauer himself had been all along 

 more remarkable for promoting science than seeking 

 t-ither honour or reward for the promoting of it, 

 this, which was in truth the experimeittwm crucis, was 

 not decisive of the question ; and popularly in Britain, 

 and even among the scientific men of France, the fact 

 of juxtaposition, on which alone the story of the eggs 

 rested, triumphed over the philosophical demonstra- 

 tion of the ovaries; and up to within a comparatively 

 short period, namely, till the year 1833, a dispute was 

 carried on between the zoologists of France and of 

 England, in which the former contended that the ovi- 

 parous theory was the true one. 



On the part of the British zoologists this contro- 

 versy was conducted with great ability by Mr. Owen, 

 from whose communication to the committee of science 

 of the Zoological Society, made on the '23rd of Octo- 

 ber, 1832, we shall by and by make an extract. The 

 dispute was not so much as to whether the animals 

 are or are not produced from eggs or germs of sonic 

 sort or other, but whether the young are suckled by 

 the mother. In all the marsupial animals, in which 

 the characteristic organs of the female are any thing 

 like perfect, the embryo, when it leaves the interna 

 uterus and is transferred to the abdominal pouch, is> 

 not a fully developed animal, but a mere rudiment 

 though a rudiment bearing no resemblance whatever 

 to the egg of any oviparous animal ; and this, togethe 

 with the character of the ovaries as above noticed 

 would lead to the conclusion that in echidna there is 

 no departure from the general economy of the divi 

 sion of animals to which it in this respect belongs 

 The real point at issue was whether these animals do 

 or do not suckle their young, and upon this point the 

 observations of Mr. Owen are quite conclusive, am 

 not only so, but the young have since been found ir 

 the suckling state, and with the horny mandibles sc 

 perfectly undeveloped, that the mouth, though not o 

 exactly the structure for drawing milk from the nipple 

 was yet well formed for pressing that substance fronr 

 pores or small openings in the gland containing it 

 Mr. Owen admits that though the fact of the suckling 

 is established it would not prove the converse, namely 

 that the young which was suckled had been brough 

 forth alive; but it goes far, and we think sufficiently 

 far, for proving that the animal comes as properlj 

 within the ordinary habits of production among mar 

 supial animals as the kangaroo or any other of th 

 class. Mr. Owen mentions the fact of the length o 

 time that many birds arc wholly dependent on thei 

 parents for their food, and also that the pigeon an 

 some others supply this food in part from a peculia 



cretion of their own bodies; but the secretion in 

 lis case is from the stomach, and it is in part mixed 

 ith the partially assimilated food of the old bird, 

 hereas a mammary secretion is formed by a peculiar 

 pparatns, an apparatus which is more peculiar, and 

 as a more complicated operation to perform in mar- 

 upial animals than in those which deliver their young 

 rom the internal uterus in a perfectly matured state. 

 Thus it appears to us that the fact of the agreement 

 if those singular animals with the rest of the mar- 

 upiata, in this, the most important function of their 

 ives, has been completely established. The point is 

 jne of the most singular which was ever raised in 

 latural history; and had the proof gone the other 

 vay, it would have thrown the whole physiology of 

 he vcrtebrated animals into a state of uncertainty, 

 jy which the progress of real science would have been 

 greatly retarded. Those who take an interest in 

 mture, who love to have the beautiful plan and pur- 

 )ose that runs through the whole, and the perfect 

 agreement of structure and function in every part, 

 tot only as making system the instrument of disco- 

 vering truth, but as leading to those reverential 

 eelings for the Author of Nature, which are so con- 

 ducive to the intellectual and moral elevation and 

 lappiness of man, cannot fail in being grateful to 

 Mr. Owen as his coadjutor, both in Britain and 

 Australia. We shall close our general remarks by 

 our promised quotation from Mr. Owen: " It affords 

 me much pleasure," says Mr. Owen, " to be able to 

 lay before the committee preparations of the mam- 

 mary glands from the Echidna hi/strlx, which, as the 

 following description will show, afford an additional 

 instance of the close affinity subsisting between it and 

 ornithorhynchus, notwithstanding the great dissimi- 

 larity existing between them in external form and in 

 the nature of their integuments. These glands were 

 discovered in a female specimen not quite arrived at 

 maturity, and which, therefore, in all probability had 

 never been impregnated. They are consequently 

 very small, as compared with those which have been 

 observed in ornithorhynchus, but are precisely ana- 

 logous in number, form, composition, situation, and 

 mode of termination on the outer surface of the 

 integument. 



Echidna. 



" The terminal ducts, which are fewer in number 

 than in ornithorhynchus, are similarly grouped together, 

 so. as to form a small oval arcoln, three lines in the 

 greater and two in the lesser diameter. Each arcola 

 is situated half an inch from the mesial line, and three 

 and a half inches from the orifice of the vestibule of 

 the cloaca. They are much more readily discovered 

 than in ornithorhynchus, in consequence of the hairs 

 in the Echidna being scantier and stiller, so that tl- 



