< 877 ) 
Ji et. XXXI. — On the Anatomy of the 1 Ornithorynchus Para* 
doxus of New , South Wales » By Dr Knox. 
SEVERAL months have elapsed, since Four Memoirs of const? 
derable extent, on the anatomy of this extraordinary animal, 
were deposited with the Secretary of the Wernerian Society, 
with drawings, illustrating the discoveries of the Pojson-gland 
and Spur, the disposition of the abdominal viscera, organs of ge r 
neration, he. These memoirs the Society has it in contempla- 
tion to publish in the next volume of their Transactions. In the 
mean time, we have thought it might be interesting to some of 
our readers, to present them with a brief abstract, which should 
give a condensed view of the whole of the discoveries, some of 
which are at least as important as any that have been made for a 
long time, in the department of comparative anatomy. We 
may mention, that the specimen of the Ornithorynchus was 
sent tp the Museum of the University, by his Excellency Sir 
Thomas Brisbane, Governor-General of New South Wales ; and 
was entrusted for the purpose of dissection, by Professor Jame- 
son, to Dr Knox. Most of the organs have been preserved, and 
the skeleton of the animal has been deposited in the Museum, 
The First Memoir treats of 66 the organs of Sense, and of the 
anatomy of the Poison -gland and Spur” of the animal ; read be- 
fore the Wernerian Society on the 17th May 1823. 
In the commencement of this memoir, the author observes, 
that numerous dissections of the Ornithorynchus paradoxus 
had been made in England, France, and Germany, by distin- 
guished comparative anatomists, and more particularly by the 
author of the immortal 44 Lemons d’Anatoinie Comparee,” by 
Professors Blumenbach, Blainville, Rudolphi, and others. He 
observes, that the greater part of the details found in the writ- 
ings of these gentlemen, relative to the anatomy of the internal 
parts, of the teeth, of the muscles of deglutition, he., are extreme- 
ly correct, and admit not of the least question ; but that some 
parts of the animal, such, for example, as the bones, had been 
treated superficially ; others, as the nervous system, had ap- 
parently been altogether neglected ; whilst certain organs, or as- 
semblage of organs, as the poison-gland and spur, had been com- 
©ompletely misunderstood, and that the most extraordinary er- 
