1867.] DR. A. MACALISTER ON GLOBIOCEPHALTJS SVINEVAL. 4/7 



takes place in the erect and not in the recumbent posture," "that 

 the fore paws were not used for the transmission of the foetus, but 

 to keep open the pouch ready for its reception, while the mouth 

 would be the means by which it would be deposited therein, and, 

 perhaps, held over a nipple until the mother felt the sensitive extre- 

 mity grasped by the young one." I was led, also, to suggest, from 

 " the ease with which the mother could reach with her mouth the 

 orifices of the vagina and pouch," that the young might be so trans- 

 ferred from the one to the other. 



The superintendent of Lord Derby's menagerie, however, reported 

 that the ' Bettoiigia,' "backing as it were into a corner of her cage, 

 in this situation produced the young one, which, after its birth, she 

 took up in her fore paws and deposited in the pouch." 



Mr. Hill's observations, in which I am disposed to place more 

 confidence, distinctly testifies to the lips or mouth as the instrument 

 of transport, the fore paws aiding precisely in the manner observed 

 in my experiments. The Knowsley observation accords with Mr. 

 Hill's in the circumstance of the foetus being dropped on the ground 

 when expelled from the vagina : as may be inferred, at least, from 

 the expression that "after its birth she took it up and deposited it 

 in the pouch" (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, p. 163), Whether this cir- 

 cumstance of the parturition is constant, viz. the dropping of the 

 foetus on the ground, or whether the fcetus may, occasionally, be 

 received by the mouth from the vulva, I am still disposed to regard 

 as a matter for ulterior observations. But the main fact of the 

 conveyance of the foetus to the pouch by means of the mouth may 

 now be held as the more probable (at least the more usual, if not 

 the constant) way in the genus Maa-opus. — R. O.] 



2. On some Points in the Anatomy of Globiocephalus svineval 

 (Gray). By Alexander Macalister, M.D.^ Demon- 

 strator of Anatomy, Royal College of Sm-geons, Ireland. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Carte, Director of the Natural His- 

 tory Museum of the Royal Dubhn Society, I have had the opportu- 

 nity of dissecting some parts of a Cetacean belonging to the above 

 species, and in its structure I have found what I think are peculiari- 

 ties worthy of record. The individual was a very young one, caught 

 on the west coast of Ireland, near Ballina, north-west of co. Mayo, 

 and when recent measured nearly 6 feet iu length. The skeleton 

 was but imperfectly ossified, the lateral and spinous processes of the 

 vertebrae being yet cartilaginous and flexible for the most part. 

 Most of the soft parts had been removed before the specimen was 

 sent up to Dublin ; but the pharyngeal and laryngeal apparatus was 

 untouched, as likewise were the anterior extremity and a few of the 

 spinal muscles ; it was of these few parts that I was enabled to make 

 a careful examination. (In the accompanying woodcut (p. 478) the 



