HARRISON. 141 



Dr. Patrick Hill (1822) examined what be believed to be an impregnated 

 female, in the left ovary of which was a large Graafian follicle. This specimen 

 was sent to England, and was responsible Eor the various reports that actual 

 Platypus eggs had been sent there. Hill quotes the statement of an aborigine 

 •'that it is, a fact well-known to them, that this animal lays two eggs, about the 

 size, shape, and colour of those of a hen." This error as to size — the egg of the 

 Platypus is only three-quarters of an inch in length — may have been due to 

 misunderstanding on the part of Hill, but, from this time on. there is a very 

 definite "henniness" about all statements as to Platypus egg-s. Lesson (1825) 

 says: — "Mr. Murdoch, superintendent of the farm at Emiou-plains, assured me 

 that he had found the eggs of Ornithorhynchns, and that they are of the size 

 of those of a domestic fowl." 



Etienne Geoff roy (1829) at last triumphantly produced a description and 

 figure of veritable eggs, taken to the number of four by one Mr. Holmes from 

 a sandbank in the Hawkesbury. to which his attention was drawn owing to a 

 Platypus leaving the spot. Two of these eggs came to the Manchester Museum, 

 and two into the possession of Mr. Leadbeater. It is a drawing of one of these 

 latter that Geoffroy reproduces, and it is at once obvious to an Australian zoo- 

 logist that the egg is that of the common long-necked tortoise (Chelodina longi- 

 collis). Geoffroy, however, described it as the egg of OrnitJiorhynclius, and it 

 was only after he had published his description that he paused to realise that 

 the diameter of the pelvic ring of the Platypus, through which the egg had to 

 pass, was but five-twelfths of an inch, while that of the egg was nine-twelfths. 

 To meet this difficulty, Geoffroy first supposed that the egg passed to the cloaca 

 in a not fully developed condition, and underwent further development there, 

 hut so rapidly as not to cause serious obstruction. Later, however, in 1833, he 

 discarded this view, and considered that it remained in the oviduct until hatching 

 took place, since it could not pass through the small pelvis. He would seem to 

 have conveniently forgotten that the egg's were found laid in a nest in the sand. 



Hut though Geoffroy fell so often into error in support of oviparity, he 

 ultimately proved right. The great Richard Owen, on the other hand, through 

 too firm and convinced a belief in ovo-viviparity, rejected evidence which, in the 

 light of our later knowledge, was convincing enough, and was proved, in the 

 upshot, wrong. Maule (1832) first recorded the opening up of nesting burrows, 

 from which he obtained the first described young. He writes: — "No eggs were 

 found in a perfect state, but pieces of a substance resembling egg-shell were 

 picked out of the debris of the nest." There is no reason to doubt that these 

 actually were egg-shells, but Owen altogether ignores the statement. Owen was 

 largely influenced by Dr. George Bennett, who, because he could not obtain egg's, 

 and had received conflicting stories concerning them from the aborigines he ques- 

 tioned, had become convinced that the Platypus was viviparous. 



In 1865 Owen published correspondence from Australia concerning a female 

 Platypus which had been captured and placed over night in a box. The next- 

 morning two eggs, which "were white, soft and compressible," were found in the 

 box. Here again Owen would seem to have ignored positive evidence and ac- 

 cepted a suggestion of one of Ms correspondents that these were "abortions due 

 to fear." 



In 1869 the writer of an anonymous series of articles in the Australian 

 Journal of Education states with regard to the Platypus that the egg-laying 

 idea is "exploded." In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 

 1878 there appears a discussion of the question, which most members think has 

 been settled in the negative. Mention was made, however, that Professor McCoy 

 had recently received reliable evidence that Ornithorhynchus was oviparous. 



