177 



and narrow : in each mesometry there is a plexus of transversely dis- 

 posed vessels, principally veins, which runs parallel with the uterus, 

 and seems to represent the remains of the wolffian body. The most 

 interesting feature in the generative organs was a longitudinal sep- 

 tum, dividing the vagina into two canals for upwards of an inch be- 

 yond the ora tincw. This septum terminated by a thin concave edge, 

 directed towards the outlet of the vagina. There was no constric- 

 tion or valvular fold between the divided and the undivided portions 

 of the vagina ; the former were somewhat more vascular, and slightly 

 plaited longitudinally. The whole length of the vagina was four 

 inches. The clitoris was perforated by the urethral canal, and was 

 nine lines in length. 



" No other placental quadruped has hitherto presented so near an 

 approach to the marsupial type of the female organs as the Lagosto- 

 mus. Rudiments of a vaginal septum occur in the young or virgin 

 state of several genera ; but it is only in the Lagostomus that a con- 

 tinuation of the median separation of the genital tubes has been 

 continued beyond the uterine portion along so great an extent of the 

 vagina, and as a permanent structure." 



Professor Owen also communicated the following paper, entitled 

 " Observations on the Generative System of some of the lower Ani- 

 mals," by Professor Rudolph Wagner, M.D. 



" Among a variety of observations which I undertook on the coast 

 of Nice in August and September 1839, for the purpose of obtaining 

 a more intimate knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of marine 

 animals, there are several which perhaps afford some more general 

 interest for the natural history of animals. 



" Many of my own earlier observations had produced the convic- 

 tion, that a disjunction of the sexes is much more universal than has 

 been hitherto admitted. Cuvier, in his ' Regne Animal,' and after 

 him the most of those who have entered upon Zoological Classifica- 

 tion, still assume that among the so-called lower animals many are 

 no more than females, and others without sex. 



" Thus, to begin with the Mollusca, and judging from assertion, 

 the Cyclobranchiata up to the present time are known only as fe- 

 males. I succeeded as well in Patella as in Chiton in finding some 

 individuals that were males, and others that were females. The 

 males have a white testis, with active spermatozoa, resembling those 

 of muscles ; the females have all the elements of the primitive ovum. 

 The Ascidice also appear to be of disjoined sex. I found, however, 

 in several species merely ova, but ova that presented the germinal 

 vesicle and germinal spot. 



"Among the Radiata I had hitherto found only females, as well 

 in the Starfish as in the Sea-urchin and the Holothurice. The pear- 

 shaped vesicles which open into the eflferent duct of the ovary in 

 Holothuria tubulosa, and which Delle Chiaje regards as testes, posi- 

 tively showed no spermatozoa in three individuals, in which the pale 

 rose-red ovary was otherwise much developed, and presented the 

 most beautiful ova, with germinal vesicle and germinal spot. But 



