682 MESSRS. GARROD AND TURNER ON [ June 1 8, 



5. On the Gravid Uterus and Placenta of Hyomoschus 

 aquaticus. By Professors A. H. Garrod, M.A., F.R.S., 

 and William Turner, M.B., F.R.S. 



[Received June 11, 1878.] 

 (Plate XLIV.) 



An adult female of Hyomoschus aquaticus having come into our 

 hands, it was with no small pleasure that on eviscerating it we found 

 it far advanced in pregnancy ; for it enables us to give an account 

 of the placenta, the nature of which has, till now, only been surmised 

 from what is found in Tragulus. 



In his valuable memoir on the Tragulidas 1 , M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards briefly describes and also figures the foetus with the placenta 

 of Tragulus stanleyanus. He makes no mention of the uterus, of 

 which, in an allied species, John Hunter tells us 2 that it "soon 

 divides into two horns, which are pretty large and not long, having 

 none of the buttons for the cotyledons." 



In his paper on the visceral anatomy of Hyomoschus aquaticus 3 , 

 Prof. Flower describes the female generative organs in the following 

 words : — "The vagina was 5 inches in length ; the'uterus 3 - 5 inches 

 to the point of bifurcation, sharply bent back on itself near the upper 

 end, and terminated in a pair of rather short, closely curled 

 cornua." 



In our gravid specimen the single hairless foetus which, from tip 

 of nose to end of tail, measures 8'5 inches, the tail being an inch 

 long, is lodged on the left side. 



The uterus consists of two horns communicating with a common 

 corpus uteri. The horns are united together in the greater part of 

 their extent, not more than about 1*5 inch of the tip of each horn 

 being free. The line of union is marked externally by a groove, and 

 internally by a broad partition, the septum uteri, which extends 

 longitudinally backwards and terminates in a well-defined semilunar 

 free border, behind which the two horns are fused together into the 

 common corpus uteri. The free ends of the cornua are curled back- 

 wards, and together with the Fallopian tubes and ovaries are situated 

 upon the anterior part of the superior wall of the uterus. Owing to 

 the foetus being developed in the left horn, this cornu is much more 

 dilated than the right ; but the latter is considerably more capacious 

 than in the non-gravid uterus. The corpus uteri communicates by 

 a constricted os with a passage which may perhaps be regarded as a 

 cervix, though some might look on it as only the specially modified 

 anterior end of the vagina. This part of the genital passage is If 

 inch long and very much constricted. Its mucous lining is longitu- 

 dinally folded ; and the folds are at intervals so projecting as to give 

 the appearance of transverse constrictions. The passage and the os 



1 Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 5th series, vol. ii. 1864, pp. 49-167. 



2 ' Essays and Observations,' edited by Prof. Owen, 1861, vol. ii. p. 135. 



3 P.Z. S 1867, p. 960. 



