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 down its total 
length. These are not particularly long, nor much convoluted, and 
lie along the anterior edge of the broad ligament. The ovaries are 
completely 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 Morgagni”’ nearly the 
size of a pea. 
The opening of the vagina into the urino-genital sinus by ¢wo 
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. ¢. 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, beg morphologically the urino-genital canal. Rapp also 
describes these animals as having a single uterus with two ora 
(“‘einfache Gebiirmutter mit doppeltem (rechten und linken) Mut- 
termund,” l. ce. p. 104). Nevertheless I see no reason for doubting 
the view adopted by Prof. Oweu, 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 D/yrmecophaga is a pecu- 
liarity shared, judging from Owen’s accouut, by the genus Cholapus® 
only amongst other {families 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 os uteri) also*. 
In other cases this disappears completely, except externally, forming 
then the so-called “hymen” of Miall and Greenwood. 
In the genus Lagostomus, on the other hand, as first described by 
Prof. Owen’, the accuracy of whose statement I have lately had an 
1 Anat. Vert. iii. p. 690. 2 i.¢. p. 102. 
3 “In the Unau (Bradypus didactylus) the rudiment 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 condition having been 
already noted in Bradypus tridactylus|, the utero-vaginal canal communicates 
in the virgin animal by two distinct orifices with the short urogenital tract.” 
Anat. Vert. iii. p. 690. 
4 M. Watson, “On the Anatomy of the Female Organs of the Proboscidea,” 
Trans. Z. 8. xi. p. 116 &e. pl. xxii. fig. 1. 
° P.Z.8. 1839, p. 177; Anat. Vert. iii. p. 686. 
