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



but there is no constriction or valve at all at its junction with the 

 vagina. It receives the Fallopian tubes, not at its supero-external 

 angles as in Homo &c., but at a point about one third clown its total 

 length. These are not particularly long, nor much convoluted, and 

 lie along the anterior edge of the broad ligament. The ovaries are 

 com j)letely covered by a peritoneal coat superiorly, but by their ventral 

 faces open into a spacious peritoneal pouch, open anteriorly, in the 

 floor of which is the very considerable aperture of the morsus diaboli, 

 surrounded by the expanded extremity of the Fallopian tube. This 

 is not much fimbriated, and is externally prolonged to meet the 

 external border of the ovary of the same side. On this surface of 

 the ovary may be seen a few scars, probably due to the eruption of 

 Graafian follicles, as well as a couple of small clavate processes which 

 depend freely from it into the cavity of the pouch. Towards the 

 outer part of the broad ligament, and lying anteriorly to the ovary 

 and round ligament, is a large " hydatid of Morgagui " nearly the 

 size of a pea. 



The opening of the vagina into the urino-genital sinus by two 

 distinct apertures seems to be characteristic (according to the state- 

 ments of Owen * and Rapp ^) both of the Anteaters and the Sloths, 

 though Pouchet considered it in his specimen as " sans doute une 

 anomalie" (J., c. p. 195). The latter author describes as the 

 " uterus " what I have here considered to represent both uterus and 

 vagina, whilst what he calls " vagina " is only so in a functional 

 sense, being morphologically the urino-genital canal. Rapp also 

 describes these animals as having a single uterus with two ora 

 {" einfache Gehdrmutter mit doppeltem {rechten und linken) Mut- 

 iermund," I. c. [). 104). Nevertheless I see no reason for doubting 

 the view adopted by Prof. Owen, that the genital tube above the 

 urethral opening represents in reality both uterus and vagina. 



The presence of a vaginal septum, a remnant of the coalescence of 

 the primitively paired Miillerian ducts, in Mijrmecojihaga is a pecu- 

 liarity shared, judging from Owen's account, by the genus Choloepus^ 

 only amongst other iamilies of Edentates. 



In the Indian Elephant there is, at least sometimes, a similar 

 but more perfect septum dividing into lateral halves not only the 

 vagina, but the uterus (here provided with a distinct as uteri) also*. 

 In other cases this disappears completely, except externally, forming 

 then the so-called " hymen " of Miall and Greenwood. 



In the genus Logostomus, on the other hand, as first described by 

 Prof. Owen", the accuracy of whose statement I have lately had an 



' Anat. Yert. iii. p. 690. ^ i ^ ^ ^02. 



3 " In the Unau {JSradijpv.s didacfyhii') the riidiment of a uterine septum 

 appears as a longitudinal ridge from the inner surface of the anterior wall in 

 the unimpregnated state: in this species also the same condilion having been 

 already noted in Bradypus triduclyhis], the utero-vaginal canal communicates 

 in the virgin animal by two distinct orifices with tlie short urogenital tract." 

 Anat. Vert. iii. p. 690. 



* M. Watson, " On the Anatomy of the Female Organs of the Proboscidea," 

 Trans. Z. S. xi. p. 116 &c. pi. xxii. fig. 1. 



» P. Z. S. 1839, p. 177; Anat. Vert. iii. p. 686. 



