1837.] On a new genus of the Plantigrades. 565 



organ from its sheath more than fths of an inch. In copulation the 

 point alone of the penis can be introduced, unless in this animal the 

 organ is not bared, but used sheathed. The prepuce, however, is 

 hairy to its attachment ; which renders this unlikely. 



The anal orifice is bare and very capacious. On each side of the 

 orifice (central and lateral) rather without, than within, the sphincter, 

 there is a round opening, large enough to admit the point of a com- 

 mon dissecting blowpipe, through which, on pressure of the sides of 

 the anus, a whey-colored, foetid fluid, the consistence of thin gruel 

 passes in a jet. The direction of these openings is posterior (towards 

 the tail) the fluid not passing into the rectum, but being thrown 

 behind the animal. The blowpipe, ere it passed into the cavity com- 

 municating with these orifices, had to be directed anteriorly and 

 laterally*. On removing the integuments from the perineum, two 

 globular white-colored bodies, each the size of a cherry, were found 

 in contact with the rectum, one on each side, and in the centre. The 

 membranous attachments of these bodies to the gut being removed, 

 there remained a connecting neck about |ths of an inch long, (the 

 duct from their centres) which opened as described, and through which 

 the fluid was discharged. A medial section of these globular bodies 

 separated them into two cups, the hollows of which when united were 

 large enough to contain the largest marrowfat pea. The cavities of 

 their bodies were lined with a very delicate white, smooth, and shining 

 membrane, external to which, and surrounding it entirely, was a layer 

 of white glandular substance, — the secreting organ. The whole was 

 enveloped in a thin membranous covering. The two lateral openings 

 described were the only ones apparent, on the anal orifice. Immedi- 

 ately under the integuments, and close to the sphincter ani at its 

 perineal margin, lay the vesiculse seminales, white, of an oval form, 

 and -j an inch in length. I call these bodies vesiculse seminales as 

 they were connected closely with the urethra at their opposite sides, 

 from that in contact with the rectum. If they are not vesiculse semi- 

 nales, what are they ? they are not prostates ; but they may however 

 correspond to the glands of Cowper in the human subjectf. 



A. Campbell, M. D. 



* When sitting, with the animals vent towards me about a foot off, the bodies 

 which secrete this fluid were pressed upon, when a portion of it was squirted 

 in my face. 



f I am aware that it is said, the whole of the Carnivora, Ruminantia, Cetacea, 

 Marsupiata, and Plantigrada, with the exception of two of the latter, are without 

 these vesiculse. 

 4 n 



