296 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GREAT ANTEATER. [Mar. 7, 



3. Female Generative Organs (fig. 6, p. 297). — These have been 

 briefly described by Pouchet', as well as by Kapp ; but their accounts 

 will, in some respects, bear supplementing. 



A cloaca, in the true sense of the word, is not present in the 

 Great Auteater. The labia majora, which bound the vertical urino- 

 genital fissure, are very prominent and hirsute. Above them, but 

 separated by a distinct perineal space, slightly hair-clad, is the trans- 

 verse anal aperture, the mucous membrane lining which is pink, 

 quite different from that of the lower passage and its boundaries, 

 which is grey. Slightly inclosing these two apertures above is a 

 widely-open V-shaped tegumentary fold, with its apex situated 

 superiorly towards the root of the tail. 



There are no labia minora visible ; and no clitoris is present as a 

 free organ, though the corpora cavernosa can be felt as tough bodies 

 lying in the walls of the vulva. 



The length of the urino-genital canal is 2-7 inches : about 1 inch 

 from its external orifice may be seen, on each side of the middle line, 

 two or three small pore-like depressions ; a bristle passed through 

 the largest of these enters a short duct, connected with one of a pair 

 of globular compact glands about the size of a small cherry, which 

 lie in the walls of the urino-genital canal above, between it and the 

 rectum. They are, no doubt, " vulvo-vagiual " glands, or glands of 

 Bertolini, corresponding to the male Cowper's. The urino-genital 

 canal is lined by smooth, vascular, mucous membrane. 



Communication between this and the next section of these organs 

 is effected by means of two small apertures, each admitting readily 

 enough the passage into the vagina, through the here constricted 

 walls of the common tube, of a probe. From between these apertures 

 is prolonged downwards, for a slight distance along the dorsal wall 

 of the urino-genital canal, a slight ridge of mucous membrane, on 

 each side of which are visible numerous small pore-like apertures, 

 arranged in series in lines running outwards from the middle line. 



On laying open the vagina along its anterior wall, it is seen to pass 

 above with no marked constriction or " as uteri " into the pyriform 

 simple uterus, the only distinction between the two parts being 

 afforded by the thicker and more muscular walls of the uterus, and 

 by the difference in the character of the mucous membrane, this being 

 quite smooth and spongy in the uterus, whilst that of the vagina is 

 thrown into a close-set series of thick, more or less longitudinal, 

 somewhat foliaceous plaits. For about the lower inch of the vagina 

 there extends a complete median septum, attached to both dorsal 

 and ventral walls of the tube, extending a little further along the 

 dorsal wall, and terminating superiorly by a free semilunar margin, 

 concave upwards. Hence the terminal part of the vagina consists 

 of two quite separate tubes, fused together above, but each opening 

 into the urino-genital sinus by a single aperture of its own below. 



The vagina proper measures about 4 inches in length. The pyri- 

 form uterus is not more than 2 inches long : it presents not the 

 slightest sign of being double. Its walls are very thick and muscular ; 



1 M6m. p. 194. 



