420 Mr. A. Alcock on 



consisting of a large ovary and oviduct, are found on the left 

 side only. In niy original paper (' Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal,' vol. lix. pt. ii. p. 53), describing a large 

 female of this species taken in one of the estuaries of the 

 river Mahanadi in December 1888, I stated that the right 

 oviduct alone was present. I was writing from rough notes 

 taken when the specimen, which was hopelessly large for 

 preservation, was hastily dissected by the dim ligiit of a 

 ship's lantern in one of the scuppers of the ship ; and I think 

 it very probable tliat 1 may have mistaken my bearings, for 

 these reasons — first, that owing to the position of the large 

 spiral gut on the right side we have an obvious physical 

 preference for the development of the left oviduct, and 

 secondly, that in all the pregnant rays that I have since dis- 

 sected, where only one oviduct is present it is always the 

 left. 



The terminal portion of the (left) oviduct formed a large 

 oval fleshy tumour or uterus, tiie end of which projected into 

 the cloaca like an " os uteri " into a vagiua. On opening 

 this a single male foetus was found to fill its cavity, the foetus 

 lying naked, tightly folded, and unattached in any way to 

 the parent. It had the following dimensions : — Extreme 

 length, from tip of snout to tip of tail, 3 feet, length of body- 

 disk 8 inches, and breadth of body- disk 8 inches. On 

 removing it attention is next attracted to the sticky, greasy, 

 creamy material which is smeared over the inner surface of 

 the uterine wall, and when this is removed the uterine 

 mucous membrane is exposed. The mucous membrane has 

 a shaggy appearance, owing to the presence of a dense crowd 

 of long filamentous villi ; it is of a vivid scarlet colour, owing 

 to its vascularity, and has an odour much like that of raw 

 beef. 



On dividing the uterus all down one side and turning it 

 inside out under water the villi are beautifully seen. They 

 clothe the whole organ so thickly — like the bristles of a 

 broom or like a thick coarse fur — that tlie surface from which 

 they spring is entirely concealed. In a square of a quarter 

 of an inch (after contraction in spirit) there are about 210 

 villi, and as the internal superficial dimension of the uterus 

 (alter contraction in spirit) is about 20 square inches, the 

 total number of villi must be about 67,200. 



Beneath (1) the villi, Avhich constitute the mucous mem- 

 brane, the wall of the uterus in transverse section shows, from 

 within outwards, (2) a submucous stratum in which is a very 

 distinct vniscularis viucosw of both longitudinally and circu- 

 hirly disposed fibres — the former greatly predominant — 



