PLATANISTA. 481 



In the vagina of the virgin JPlatanista the mucous membrane has the general 

 character of that structure in the sow. 



Fallopian tubes. — These describe five distinct curves from the horns to the pavi- 

 lion (PL XXXI, fig. 1), two of which are much greater than the others. The first of 

 these occurs at the uterine end of the tube, and lies close to the attachment of the 

 ovary, where its wall is quarter of an inch thick in the virgin. In the impregnated 

 dolphin, it forms a well-defined prominence lying below the ovary on the left side, 

 where its outer surface is finely corrugated (fig. 1,/) ; below the right side there is no 

 suoh projection, although the corrugations are found marked over the area of the 

 carve. In the virgin, this bend of the Pallopian tube, which is the narrowest part also 

 in the mother, is visible externally as a small swelling (PI. XXXII, fig. 3). The next 

 curve is the better developed of the two. It lies a short way behind, where the tube 

 begins to widen to the ostium ahdominale, and is best seen in the virgin and on the 

 right side of the mother. It is worthy of note that the right Pallopian tube of the 

 impregnated dolphin has retained the characters of the convolutions of the virgin, 

 while the left Pallopian tube has considerably departed from them ; therefore, may 

 we not surmise that the virgin character of the right Fallopian tube would indicate 

 that if this dolphin had ever before been a mother, she must have conceived as now 

 in the left horn ? In the virgin the Pallopian tubes of both sides are of equal extent, 

 2*50 inches, while in the impregnated dolphin the right PaUopian canal is longer than 

 the left, the latter being only 6-50, while the former measures 7*50 inches in length. 

 In the virgin, the tube has such a capacity that it can be slit open with moderate 

 facility by a pau^ of ordinary dissecting scissors, and, of course, it is much wider 

 in the impregnated female on both sides of the body. Prom its ostium uterinum the 

 tube contracts as it passes through the first curve which has been described, and 

 widens as it approaches the second, more rapidly dilating as it approaches the ostium 

 abdominale, immediately before which it is somewhat again reduced in diameter. It is 

 lined with fine permanent lamellar folds of dififerent depths, which have an origin at 

 the commencement of the tube, either distinct from the folds of the horn, or, as in 

 the specimen before me, two of the folds of the left tube result from the division of 

 one of the folds of the horn (PL XXXI, fig, 3) and immediately become so divergent as 

 to embrace within them four other folds which have an independent origin of their 

 own, only two or three other folds of separate origin being external to the embracing 

 laminae. The folds become slightly larger as they approach the ostium abdominale 

 and much more numerous, and are connected together by oblique finer folds, which, 

 in their turn, have cross fibres running between them, so that the appearance of a 

 fibrous mesh work is produced around the ostium abdominale. The laminae are 

 prolonged outwards on to the pavilion in a radiate manner. In the impregnated 

 female, the folds preserve the same characters as in the virgin, until they reach the 

 dilated portions of the tube, and more especially around the ostium abdominale, 

 where they form thin leaf -like overlapping folds like those which occur round the 

 mouth of the uterus itself, and are prolonged on to the pavilion as thin radiating 

 folds, some of which are an inch and a half in breadth. In the virgin the orifice of 



n3 



