1908.] ANTECHIXOMYS AXD OTHER MARSUPIALS. 603 



one vein bifurcates anteriorly. Bettongia ogilhyi is like many 

 other ]\Iai-supials ; the suprarenal portal is single and anterior in 

 position, being- formed by the union of two affluents which join at 

 an acute angle. As Thylacinus is a scarce type and not likely to 

 be much dissected in the fviture, I venture to give a particular 

 accovmt of the veins connected with the suprarenal body, which 

 I noted during the dissection of a specimen which died in the 

 Society's Gardens in January 1906. The suprarenal vein entei\s 

 the postcaval (as is shown in text-figure 124, A) a little anteriorly 

 to the entrance of the left renal vein. It emerges from the 

 suprarenal body some little way in front of the posterior border 

 of the gland. The suprarenal ]3ortal vein enters the gland on 

 the right side a little way behind the anterior border. It is 

 formed of three affluents. The middle one arises from the dia- 

 phragm and joins a branch arising from the parietal musculature 

 to the right of the suprarenal body. Just before entering 

 the suprarenal body the trunk formed by the union of these 

 two vessels is reinforced by a vein arising to the left of the supra- 

 renal body. The common trunk is thinner than the suprarenal 

 vein. 



I have examined a number of Mammals belonging to orders 

 other than the Marsupialia, but have not found anything at all 

 resembling this apparently charactei'istic Marsupial feature in the 

 blood-supply of the suprarenal bodies. I believe myself at present 

 justified in asserting that this character, whether or not it be held 

 to be a persistence of a condition to be met with among Reptiles 

 and other lower Tei'tebrata, is distinctive of the Marsupialia. 



V. Rfisuine. 



I extract from the foregoing pages the principal new facts 

 which I have been able to add to oui- knowledge of the intestinal 

 tract of mammals and to certain features in the anatomy of 

 the Marsupialia. 



(1) The most important features in the visceral anatomy of 

 Antechinomys are : the intestine borne upon a continuous 

 mesentery, the absence of a Spigelian lobe in the liver, the wide 

 dilatation of the uteri at their junction with the Fallopian tube, 

 the development of a short unpaired c?ecal chamber at the junction 

 of the uteri, 



(2) A specimen of Phascologale macdonellensis showed a 

 persistent umbilical membrane (proving an umbilical placentation 

 in this species), which passes between the fibres of the rectus 

 muscle divided for its passage, and is continuous with the great 

 and splenic omentum. The umbilical membrane is also attached 

 to small intestine. The intestinal canal is short and cai-ried 

 on a continuous mesentery. The liver in this species, as in 

 P. penicillata, has a Spigelian lobe, also present in the genus 

 SminthojJsis. 



(3) In many (? in all) Mai-supials the suprarenal bodies receive 



