gyS MESSRS. LISTER AND IXETCHER ON THE [DcC. 13, 



an orifice large enough to admit a liog's bristle was to be met with, 

 and that " immediately after parturition, the parts are nearly brought 

 back into their original state ; the only circumstance deserving note 

 is, that the opening leading directly from the uterus (that is the 

 median vaginal canal) to the vagina (urogenital sinus), which is not 

 met with in the virgin state, after being enlarged by the passage of 

 the foetus, forms a projecting orifice and almost wholly conceals the 

 meatus urinarius." 



Concerning the views of Cuvier and of Geoffroy St.-Hilaire we are 

 not able to say much. From allusions in several of the papers shortly 

 to be mentioned, it would appear that Cuvier was opposed to the 

 view that a direct communication existed between the median vaginal 

 and the urogenital chambers, while G. St.-Hilaire was in favour of 

 such a view. Owing to the want of satisfactory references, we have 

 been unable not only to meet with the original papers in which these 

 two distinguished authors enunciated their views, but also to find 

 any descriptions of actual dissection. In the Enghsh edition of the 

 'Regne Animal,' however, the following passage occurs : — "The matrix 

 of the animals of this order (Marsupialia) does not open by a single 

 orifice into the extremity of the vagina, but communicates with the 

 canal by two bent lateral tubes." 



In 1828 Seller' published his observations on a "Kangaroo" 

 which had a mammary foetus in the pouch. He says : — " Noch 

 immer findet man in mehreren neuern Schriften die alte Meinung 

 wiederholt, es entstehe zur Zeit der ersteu Geburt des Fotus eine 

 Oeffnung in dem Gebarmutterhalse, gleich hinter der Harnrohren- 

 miindung, durch welche der Embryo geboren werde. So unwahr- 

 scheinlich mir auch immer diese Ansicht erschien, so sprechen doch 

 Home's Beobachtungen dafiir, und ich untersuchte daher nicht nur 

 die Gebarmutter ganz gen an, sonderu fiillte sie auch von einer Mut- 

 tertrompete aus mit Quecksilber so stark an, dass sie ganz gespannt 

 ausegedehnt wurde : allein es zeigte sich keine Spur einer Oeffnung, 

 und est ist mir nun gar niclit mehr zweifelhaft, dass der Embryo 

 durch die seitenkanale der Gebiirniutter gelioren werde, deren Ueber- 

 gangsbildung zu den Eyergjingen Geoffroy St. Hilaire sehr richtig 

 nacliweist." 



In 1834 Prof. Owen- published his paper "On the Generation of 

 the Marsupial Animals, with a Description of the impregnated Uterus 

 of the Kangaroo," from which we quote the following passage : — 

 ''The foetus has been conjectured to pass into theurethro-sexual cavity 

 by a direct aperture formed after impregnation at the lower blind 

 end of tlie cul-de-sac; but I have not been able to discover any trace of 

 such a foramen in two Kangaroos which had born young, and besides 

 I find that this part of the vagina is not continuous by means of its 

 proper tissue with the urethro-sexual canal, but is connected to it by 

 cellular membrane only ; and the structure is agreeable to what is 

 presented in the simpler forms of the marsupial uterus, as inDicMphys 

 dorsigera and the Petauri, in which the culs-de-sac do not even come 



1 Isis, 1828, pp. 475-477. 



2 Pliil. Trans, cxxiv. 1834, pp. 333-3(i4. 



