160 ON THE ORGANS OF GENERATION, &e. 
the Royal Society of London. The only reasons I have 
yet found out for this omission are, that, in these " Obser- 
vations," the urethra is said to open into the rectum*, 
which is not the case ; and the two glands of Cowper are 
described as terminating by six or seven orifices upon the 
surface of the rectum, instead of which, these canals termi- 
nate in a small cavity which communicates with the urethra, 
and with the seminal canal of the penis. The anatomy and 
physiology of these glands have been in consequence entire- 
ly misunderstood ; at the same time, the true situation and 
anatomy of the orifice by which the seminal fluid passes 
into the canal or duct"of the penis, though described, is not 
depicted. In a subsequent paper on the anatomy of the 
Ornithorynchus Hystrix, contained in the same volume of 
the Philosophical Transactions, most of these errors have 
been corrected. The true anatomy of the glands and ducts 
of Cowper had been discovered, and this led to a more ac- 
curate description of the whole : but it must be evident, that 
these seemingly contradictory statements might have led the 
French naturalists to disregard dissections which, in other 
respects, were extremely accurate -f-. I shall endeavour to 
submit to the Society, at a future period, a few opinions 
relative to the place which the Ornithorynchus is entitled 
to, in the scale of animals. In the mean time, it must be 
evident, that the speculations relative to the analogy of the 
Ornithorynchus with birds, so far as regards the male or- 
gans of generation, are entirely erroneous. 
• Page 7D. 1802. 
•f* I have caused drawings of the parts described in this memoir to be laid 
before the Society, which, in addition to the diagram, and the inspection of 
the parts themselves, will, I trust, render the anatomy of the whole suffi- 
ciently distinct. The engraving (Plate V.) is from a pencil sketch by Mr 
Thomson. 
3 
