ON THE BURSA FABRICII IN BIRDS. 



Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 



17 



Diagram showing two chief Types of Development of the Bursa Fabricii. 



R. Rectum. B. Bursa. C. Cloacal chamber. D. Lowest chamber of "cloaca." 



d. Openings of urino-genital ducts. 



bourse, la considerait comme uii reservoir seminal, tandis que d'autres 



naturalistes * la regardent comme une vessie urinaire. Perrault et 



quelques auteurs modernest y voient 1'analogue des glandes anales des 



Mammiferes, et Geoffr. St.-Hilaire 1'assimile aux glandes du CowperJ; 



enfin, M. Martin St.-Ange la compare a la prostate." Emil Huschke, 



in the paper mentioned above, has studied its development, and, after a 



comparison of the organs of similar appearance, is inclined to consider it 



as the primitive urinary vesicle of the Wolfian bodies, from the fact that 



the ducts of this gland take origin from just that part of the cloaca which 



afterwards assumes the form of the bursa. Harvey and others have 



sufficiently disproved Fabricius's ideas as to its serving as a spermotheca; 



nor can the bursa be regarded as a urinary bladder, first, because it is 



not devoted to containing the urine ; secondly, because in other Sauro- 



psida and also in the Mammalia the urinary bladder is ventral, not dorsal, 



in position. For a similar reason, as well as from the fact that they are 



paired organs, the " bursce anales " of the Testudinata can be in no way p. z. S. 1877, 



related to that under discussion. The anal glands of Mammals, again, P- 318 - 



open externally on the skin, and are in fact cutaneous glands. The 



prostate and glands of Cowper are purely male glands, and probably 



play some important function in the act of reproduction ; so that they 



can hardly well correspond to an organ that is common to both sexes, 



and only proportionally developed in the young. It would be premature 



to accept Huschke's views without further observations on the subject. 



On the other hand, as pointed out by Signor Alesi, a lymphatic organ, 



constructed on a similar principle, but in a simpler form, exists in the 



* E.g. Berthold, Acad. Caes.-Leop. Nova Acta, xiv. p. 917 (1828 and Geoffrey St.- 

 Hilaire, Mem. du Museum, 1823, t. ix. p. 394. 

 t E. g. Carus, ' Zootomia.' 

 I Ticdcmanr, ' Anat. der Vogel,' 1810. 



C 



