Mode of Generation of the Kangaroo. 223 
support peculiar to itself. It therefore appears to form a link 
in the gradation leading from the one to the other. 
The American opossum, which is a small animal, was the 
only one of this tribe that was known in Europe before the 
late discoveries in the South Seas ; and as it had not been found 
to breed either in France or England, the only accounts of its 
mode of generation were those received from America, which 
were vague, and could not be entirely depended on. 
These accounts, however, led anatomists, who had opportu- 
nities of dissecting the female organs, to endeavour by that 
method to throw some light upon the subject ; but the parts 
were found to be so complex, and in so many respects different 
from those of other quadrupeds, that nothing satisfactory could 
thus be made out, while deprived of an opportunity of seeing 
them in an impregnated state.* 
The discovery of the kanguroo, an animal of a very large 
size, related in many important points to the opossum, opened 
a prospect of something more satisfactory being ascertained 
respecting the generation of these animals ; and from the 
time that a colony was established in New South Wales, it be- 
came an inquiry to which several persons directed their at- 
tention. 
The late Mr. Hunter had for many years kept American 
opossums, with the sole view of investigating this subject; but 
* In Bvffon’s Histoire JStaturelle there is an anatomical description of the female 
organs of the opossum, by Daubenton, and quotations from an account published 
in England by Tyson, from which he differs in some particulars ; but candidly con- 
fesses himself not satisfied upon the subject, being unable to make out the uses of the 
parts. Tyson says there are two ovaria, two tubs fallopianae, two uteri, two cornua 
/atcri,two vaginae uteri. Buff. Hist. Natnr. Tom. X. p. 302. 
G g 2 
