IN THE ORNITHORYNCHUS PARADOXUS. 155 
refer to the situation of the glands of Cowper, which are 
placed close to the anus, outside the pelvis, and may rea- 
dily be discovered by removing the skin of the perineum, 
and the muscles by which they are closely enveloped. 
These glands are comparatively of very large size, a fact 
readily accounted for, by considering that all the other or- 
gans generally found in animals as appendages to the male 
generative organs, such as prostate, seminal vesicles, acces- 
sory vesicles, &c. have disappeared. The duct proceeding 
from each of these glands is about an inch in length ; they 
unite in a common cavity of small dimension, but distinct, 
placed close to the urethra, and into which enters the very 
short canal from the urethra, (whose orifice I have de- 
scribed as situated on the surface of the urethra, at about 
l^^^th inches from the entrance of the urethra into the 
bladder, and l^^ot^ inches from the termination of the 
vasa deferentia in the common urethra) ; and from which 
arises the long seminal canal or urethra of the penis, 
a duct destined for the transmission of the seminal fluid, 
and which entirely escaped the notice of the French anato- 
mists. This duct or canal passes through the centre of the 
penis towards its anterior extremity, but divides, before 
terminating, into two ducts, destined for the separate bun- 
dles of papillae, in which the bifurcated or double gkns of 
the penis terminates. When the point of one of these par- 
pillaj is cut off, it is found to lead into a common cavity 
placed at the base of the small bundle of papillae, and into 
which enters the seminal urethra already described. I now 
introduced the tube of a syringe into the open orifice of 
the papilla or nipple-like termination of the glans, which 
had been cut across, and found that the injected fluid re- 
turned by the orifices of the remaining papillae, wliich had 
been left untouched, shewing that the resistance offered by 
