IN THE ORNITKORYNCHUS PARADOXUS. 157 
connected with the seminal canal peculiar to the penis it- 
self, and wholly unconnected, or nearly so, with the urinary 
or true urethra *. The passage and course of the seminal 
fluid may be readily understood : it is first poured into 
the common urethra, close to the bladder, by the vasa de- 
fer entia ; passes along this canal, until it reaches the sur- 
face of the urethra placed over the base of the penis, and 
where the opening of the seminal urethra of the penis is 
placed ; the remainder of the urinary canal being shut 
during erection, partly by muscular contraction, and partly 
by the efflux of blood into the body and base of the penis, 
no other passage is left for the seminal fluid, but that open- 
ing into the common cavity situated at the base of the penis, 
and into which are also poured the secretions from the glands 
of Cowper. But, as fluids readily pass from the ducts of 
these glands -f* into the seminal canal of the penis, and vice 
versa J so these secretions are readily transmitted with the 
seminal fluid along the seminal canal, to the four small 
conical papills9 situated on either glans, with which this 
animal is furnished. These papillae, I have already stated, 
are hoUow, and perforated at their extremity. 
The penis is about an inch in length, in its relaxed state. 
• In most animals, the ducts of Cowper*s glands are so situated as to 
render it impossible for the seminal fluid to pass along these ducts towards 
the glands themselves. This is not absolutely the case with the same organs 
in the ornithorynchus, but I do not think that there arises from this the least 
doubt relative to the nature of these bodies called Cowper's Glands. I be- 
lieve them to be essentially glandular ; and not receptacles for the seminal 
fluid, but destined to secrete a fluid of importance in the act of generation, 
•f- By a strange oversight, the hedge-hog is stated in the Anatomie Com- 
pareCf not to have the glands of Cowper ; but the fact is, that they are re- 
markably large in that animal, whose generative organs merit a more careful 
analysis than has hitherto been made. 
