HARRISON. 139 



I do not propose to touch upon the third controversy in these notes, as it is 

 still of speculative rather than historical interest. Nor do I propose to give full 

 bibliographical references. I shall have to traverse in summary fashion the 

 opinions of a great many workers, and a bibliography would bulk almost as 

 large as the notes. Any who is curious to follow the matter further may do so by 

 reference to Fletcher's excellent bibliography of Marsupialia and Monotremata 

 \Proc Linn. Soc. K.S.W., ix., 1884, pp. 809-863). 



To Shaw, the first zoologist to handle a Platypus, the animal was obviously 

 a mammal, since it had a furry covering, and he placed it in the lowest Linnean 

 Order, Bruta, which included what we know now as the Edentata — anteaters, 

 sloths, and the like. 



Home was an anatomist, not a systematic zoologist, and was not deeply con- 

 cerned about the systematie position of the animal, the anatomy of which he was 

 describing. He notes the remarkable character of the organs of reproduction, 

 both in male and female, and remarks on the latter: — ''This structure of the 

 female organs is unlike anything hitherto met with in quadrupeds; since in all 

 of them that I have examined, there is the body of the uterus, from which the 

 horns go off, as appendages. The opossum differs from all other animals in the 

 structure of these parts, but has a perfectly formed uterus; nor can I suppose it 

 wanting in any of the class Mammalia." 



Finding that these organs were not comparable with those of mammals, 

 Home was led to examine the corresponding parts in birds and reptiles, and 

 finds most resemblance to the organs of ovo-viviparous lizards. He concludes: — 

 "There is therefore every reason to believe that this animal also is ovi-viviparous 

 in its mode of generation." 



Later, he writes : — "These characters distinguish the Ornithorhynchus, in a 

 very remarkable manner, from all other quadrupeds, giving this new tribe a re- 

 semblance in some respects to birds, in others to the Amphibia; so that it may 

 be considered as an intermediate link between the classes Mammalia, Aves, and 

 Amphibia .... Between it and the bird, no link of importance seems to be 

 wanting." Home's main reason for this conclusion lay in the fact that the 

 oviducts of the female opened separately into the cloaca, and did not unite to 

 form a uterus, as in mammals in general. 



Etienne Geoffroy (1803) included Ornithorhynchus, with the Echidna, in 

 a new order, Monotremata, but he did not give any precise indication as to 

 where this order should be placed. 



Tiedcmann (1808) avoided the difficulty by placing it in an appendix. 



Lamarck (1809) created a new class, Prototheria, for Platypus and Echidna, 

 pointing out that they were not mammals, for they had no mammary glands, and 

 were probably oviparous; they were not birds, for their lungs differed, and they 

 had no wings; and they were not reptiles, for they possessed a four-chambered 

 heart. 



Illiger (1811) placed them in a division Eeptantia, intermediate between 

 reptiles and mammals. 



Blainville (1812), on the other hand, was convinced that they were mam- 

 mals, though belonging to a separate order, Ornithodelphia. He was the first 

 to indicate their many points of agreement with the marsupials, and he gave: a 

 long list of mammalian resemblances. 



Etienne Geoffroy was convinced from the outset that the Platypus was not 

 a mammal, and entered into a controversy with Blainville which lasted for many 

 years. Van der Hoeven and Latreille were on his side, while Cuvier and Meckel 

 supported Blainville. The discovery of the mammary glands was announced by 

 Meckel in 1824, but his full description was not published until 1826. Fur, 

 diaphragm, and mammary glands would appear sufficient to settle the matter, 



