PHOCLENA COMMUNIS. 105 



mostly transverse at the neck, becoming more and more obliqne down- 

 wards, and at last passing longitudinally, and by this means forming 

 the cauda equina at the lower part. It seems to bear nearly the same 

 proportion in size with the brain as the human medulla spinalis does. 



The female parts of generation 1 of the porpoise are, in general, 

 similar to those of this [cetacean] class. The external parts consist of 

 an irregular slit forming two labia, one on each side, which are in the 

 direction of the trunk. Between the two anterior ends of the thin 

 labia is a ridge, which is the clitoris ; the crura of it are attached to 

 two bones answering to the two branches of the ossa [ischii] in other 

 animals; just as the crura penis are [attached] in the male porpoise. 

 From the middle of this slit passes forwards the vagina. The coats of 

 it are firm, like those of the human, extremely rugous on the internal 

 surface ; and near the os tinea? there are two folds or transverse plates, 

 whose edges or eminences are turned towards the mouth of the vagina. 

 The os tincaa is very prominent, having a great many longitudinal rugse 

 upon it. The common uterus is but short, dividing into two horns, 

 which decrease or fly off from one another in a circular form. Their 

 coats are soft, and have small longitudinal rugse on the internal surface. 

 At the ends of the horns are the Fallopian tubes which run on a mem- 

 brane or bag, becoming wider by degrees. The ovaria are long bodies. 

 The urinary bladder lies between the vagina and abdominal muscles ; 

 it is largest at the fundus, becoming smaller by degrees towards the 

 meatus. The meatus opens at the anterior part of the beginning of the 

 vagina, just at the posterior end of the clitoris. 



The milk-glands are two, lying along the belly, one on each side of 

 the linea alba. The gland is, in texture, the same with those in other 

 animals. It has only one duct, which passes through its centre back- 

 wards, and opens externally in a small projection or nipple on the side 

 of the external opening of the vagina. This nipple lies in a sulcus or 

 slit, so as to disappear occasionally. 



The parts of generation, both in a male 2 and female, are almost 

 exactly similar to those of the bull and cow, only that the testicles are 

 not external, and there are no external parts in the female. 



I should suppose that they have but one young at a time ; because, 

 in one that I had, there was all the appearance of her having had 

 young veiy lately, for the vagina was very large, and one of the horns 

 of the uterus and the ovarium of that side had one calyx only 3 . 



1 [Hunt. Preps. Nos. 2785, 2786.] 2 [lb. Nos. 2520—2522.] 



3 [In the latter end of the month of October, I found in the uterus of a porpoise, 

 a foetus of 2 inches in length. A female porpoise dissected, June 16th, 1838, by 

 Alexander Shaw, Esq., F.R.C.S., had a foetus in utero, or rather in the vagina, of 



