322 
has n to be formed. 5 the foetus 
seize the larger nipple as the readiest, or be 
directed to another more proportionate to the 
size of its mouth ? 
“ Oct. 4th.—38th day. The keeper has 
observed the female putting her nose into the 
pouch, and licking the entry. She was exa- 
mined at six in the evening ; there was a slight 
increase of the brown secretion; the nipple 
formerly in use has diminished one-third in 
size ; the other nipples indicate no appearance 
of approaching parturition. 
“ Oct. 5th.—39th day. The keeper exa- 
mined the pouch at seven this morning, and 
found there the young one attached to a — 
On being made acquainted with this fact I re- 
paired to the Zoological Gardens, and examined 
the pouch. The new-born kangaroo (fig. 140) 
was attached to the left superior nipple (fig. 140, 
a), to the point of which it adhered pretty 
Fig. 140. 
New-born fetus and left nipples, Macropus major. 
firmly. It measured one inch from the mouth 
to the root of the tail, was quite naked, and co- 
vered by a thin semitransparent vascular integu- 
ment; the place of attachment of the umbilical 
chord was obscurely indicated by a longitudinal 
linear cicatrix. The fore-legs were longer and 
stronger than the hind ones, and the digits were 
provided with claws; the toes were developed 
on the hind legs; the body was bent forward ; 
and the short tail tucked in between the hind 
legs. This little animal breathed strongly, 
but slowly ; no direct act of sucking could be 
perceived. Such, after a gestation of thirty- 
eight days, is the condition of the new-born 
young of a species of Kangaroo, of which the 
adult, when standing erect on his hind feet and 
tail, can reach to the height of seven feet. The 
birth having taken place in the night, the mode 
of transference of the young to the pouch and 
nipple was not observed. 
e hypothesis of an internal passage from 
‘the uterus to the pouch—countenanced by 
some 9K anatomical observations on the 
course of the round ligament to the abdominal 
ring, and the continuation thence of the cre- 
master to the posterior part of the mammary 
gland, together with the primitive inverted 
condition of the nipple—is wholly refuted by 
‘more exact observations of the conditions of 
these I was chagrined at the loss of so 
favourable an opportunity of determining, er 
visu, this interesting part of the problem ; for 
it had been my intention, if the symptoms of 
ap hing pregnancy had been more marked, 
to have established a night as well as day-watch 
ever the female; but by placing perhaps too 
MARSUPIALIA. 
much reliance on the observations on the preg- 
nant kangaroo recorded in the 9th volume of the 
Annales des Sciences, in which the duration 
of four months is assigned to the uterine gesta- 
tion of this species, 1 had not anticipated sc 
speedy a termination of that process as resulter 
from my experiment. ts 
In order, however, to remedy, as far as might 
be, this omission, it occurred to me that if the 
young kangaroo were detached from the nipple 
and deposited at the bottom of the pouch, any 
actions of the parent, by which its origin 
transference from the uterus to the nipple had 
been aided or effected, might be instinctively 
repeated, and thus an insight be gained into 
their nature. As, therefore, the experiments of 
Messrs, Morgan and Collie seemed to show tha 
this might be done without necessarily causin 
the death of the young one, I rmed_ the 
experiment with the sanction and assistance ¢ 
Mr. Bennett, then Secretary of the 
Society. 
“ Oct. 9th.—I examined the pouch of the 
female, and found the young one, now 
days old, evidently grown, and respiring vige 
rously ; it adhered more firmly to the nipple 
than was expected, requiring a ue 
gentle pressure to detach it: when that took 
place, a minute drop of whitish fluid, a kim 
of serous milk, was expressed from the nipple. 
No blood followed, nor anything to indicat 
a solution of organic continuity; the extremit 
of the nipple was small, not swollen as in Mr, 
Collie’s case. The young one moved its extre 
mities vigorously. It was deposited at the bo 
tom of the pouch, and the mother was left and - 
then carefully watched. Soon after this 
done she seemed uneasy, was often scratching 
the exterior of the pouch, and every now 
and then dilated the cavity with her two fo 
paws, grasping the sides of the aperture, an 
pulling them in contrary directions, just as it 
drawing open a bag; she then inserted he 
muzzle prey deeply into the pouch, movin 
her head about as if to lick off something fro 
the interior, or perhaps to move the little one 
She kept her nose in the pouch sometimes 
half-a-minute. I never observed her to pt 
~ fore-legs, or either of them, in the pouch 
they were always occupied in keeping open th 
mouth of the pouch, whale she 7 at wol 
with her mouth within it. She generally cor 
cluded by licking the mouth of the pouel 
and occasionally she stooped down to lick # 
cloaca, which she could reach with ea 
When she scratched the outside of the pouch 
seemed as if to push up something that was it 
side towards the aperture. hi 
pre. 
OOLOPgIC 
LOnUN 
These actions 
repeated at short intervals for about an hou 
she then lay down and appeared quiet. She 
had also lain down in the intervals of the abot 
operation, but during that time never med 
with the pouch ; when stimulated to do so b 
some uneasy sensation, she always rose upot 
her hind feet, and then inserted her muzzl 
alternately into the pouch and vulva. Observin 
the freedom with which she could reach both 
these parts, I was led to believe that the mode 
of removal of the young from. the vulva to th 
fi 
