96 



Dr. Davy on the Bursa Fabricii. 



[Apr. 19, 



7. In a fifth, a cock of about six years old, weighing four pounds and a 

 half, no traces of a bursa could be found. The vasa deferentia were large, 

 and were distended with a cream-like fiuid abounding in spermatozoa. 

 They terminated well apart in the cloaca, and had neither of them a visible 

 papilla*. The right testis weighed 93*7 grs., the left 119*7 grs. 



8. Of a young hen, hatched on the 1 7th of May, examined when eleven 

 weeks old, the bursa was more fiask-like than globular ; it measured 1*7 

 by 1*5 inch. Its plicae were large, and their glandular structure so well 

 developed that the orifices of the follicles, as puncta, were seen with the 

 naked eye. The bursa was empty, merely moistened with, mucous fluid. 



9. Of a hen hatched on the 17th of March, examined when seventeen 

 weeks and five days old, the bursa was about the same size and form as 

 that of the preceding ; it contained a small quantity of turbid mucous 

 fluid, in which were seen delicate filaments bearing a resemblance to 

 spermatozoa. 



10. Of another, hatched in May, and which, like the preceding, had 

 never laid, examined when nineteen weeks old, the bursa, which was empty, 

 measured 1*7 by 1*5 inch. 



11. Of a fourth, hatched on the 19th of September, said to have laid 

 and known to have been trod, examined when twenty-four weeks old, the 

 bursa was of shrunken appearance ; it was '5 inch in diameter ; its parietes 

 thick ('2 inch thick) ; there were no plicae ; it communicated freely 

 with the cloaca, and contained a little mucous fluid in which were seen 

 filaments like spermatozoa, but not unmistakeably such. There was a large 

 ovum nearly ready to be detached from the ovary. A very few tolerably 

 distinct spermatozoa were found in the oviduct, which was well deve- 

 loped. 



12. In a fifth, hatched on the 19th of July, examined when twenty weeks 

 and five days old, after having laid about twenty -five eggs, no vestige of 

 a bursa could be detected f. 



13. Of another, about eight months old, examined on the 1 7th of March, 

 after having laid three or four eggs, the bursa was of a tubular form, '9 inch 

 long by • 1 wide ; its walls were exceedingly thin, and it did not communi- 

 cate with the cloaca. In the little turbid mucous fluid it contained, a single 

 spermatozoon was detected. There was a fully formed esg in the oviduct, 

 the incrustation of which had begun. Nearest the infundibulum many 

 spermatozoa were found. 



14. In a laying hen about three years old the bursa was reduced to a 

 small hard mass, hardly equal to a pea in size. It contained a minute 

 cavity without an opening into the cloaca. 



* After immersion in water for forty-eight hours, then from distention the papillae 

 appeared, each about '24 inch in length. 



t This was a clucking hen, and the day before had been trod. The ova in the ovary 

 were small, the largest '2 inch in diameter. There was no egg in the oviduct ; sperma- 

 tozoa were found in different parts of it. 



