very limited common cavity of the uterus so defined had a length of little more
t.Vm.n 0"*75 and a similar maximum breadth. The length from the free border
defining the entrance to thelelt unfecundated horn to the wall of the right horn
facing the os uteri internum was 4"*25. The left horn thus appeared as a diverticulum
from the lower portion of the cavity, from which it passed off as
a wide channel, the orifice being one inch in breadth from side to side. The
septum between the two horns was l"-25 broad, with a maximum depth of
2"*50, and it corresponded to the septum of the uterus of Orca gladiator described
by Turner.1 A part, however, of the external wall of the left horn at
its beginning, and which in the unfecundated uterus had been within the | lips
of the entrance to the horn, entered into the formation of the cavity containing
the foetus, but all the remainder of the left horn was excluded. The latter
horn, as in such two-homed uteri generally, had become considerably enlarged
during the gravid condition, but it had not attained to one-half the' dimensions of
the other hom. The portion of the cavity around the os uteri internum was slightly
dilated on its dorsal surface. The form and relations of the two cornua of this
o-ravid uterus of Manis pentadactyla were thus exactly the same as in the gravid
uteri of Blatamsta and Orcella figured and described in this work. I mention this
because Prof. Turner 2 has described in the membranes of the Manis, originally
examined by Sharpey, the existence of “ two pouch-like recesses about the size of
walnuts, one situated at each lateral extremity of the transversely elongated uterus.”
The foetus which had arrived almost at maturity had unfortunately escaped by a
rupture of the uterine wall at the Eallopian pole of the right hom. The membranes
were, however, left investing the uterine cavity, and on laying open the uterine
wall along its dorsal surface as far as the os uteri internum, the chorion was found
closely adhering to the inner surface of the uterus and sending up a prolongation
into the left hom, and from the point where this portion turned off into the left horn*
another well-defined sac depended into the section of the cavity above and around
the os uteri internum, but when the membranes were inflated with water, this sac
was seen to be directly continuous with the portion of the membranes investing the
gravid hom. The relations, therefore, of the membranes to the uterine wall were
the same as those of the uterine membranes of the JEquidce, Bhmocerotidce
Tapiridce, Camelidce,, and Cetacea.
On gently removing the chorion, it was found that the villi covering its surface
were impacted in the spongy tissue which clothed the uterine wall ; slight traction
being exercised, they were drawn out of the investing glandular substance. As in the
uteri of Platanista Orcella, and other diffuse placenta generally, bare areas occurred
perfectly destitute of villi, and opposite to these bare spaces the surface of the
chorion was deprived of villi; but I am not prepared to say that no bare space may
not have had a few chorionic villi opposed to it. As is well known, these bare spots on
the chorion of Mams were first described by Sharpey.8 On removing the entire
- i c . , . p. 473. * Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxvii. 1873, p. 91.
3 Elements of Comp. Ânat. (Huxley), 1864, p. 112.
chorion from both horns, the distribution of the spongy and bare spaces of the
uterine wall could be studied. On the left margin of the os there was a prominent
eminence of the mucosa, somewhat conical in form, and from its apex a broad and
thick band of spongy substance, the broadest on the whole of the uterine surface,
extended as far as on a level with the left angle of the orifice into the left horn
where it ended in the commencement of a broad bare tract free from villi, and which
ran along that portion of the inner surface of the uterus and along the short side
of the septum already mentioned. A very narrow bare tract occurred on either
side of the broad and thick cryptose band, but both were more or less broken up
by minute villous tracts which Crossed them, or they were here and there covered
with pTnfl.11 yfili. Two broad bare tracts radiated forwards from the os uteri internum
on the ventral wall, enclosing broad cryptose areas of the uterine mucosa broken
up by gTnflllp.r bare tracts. A similar arrangement occurred on the dorsal and
lateral walls. As the bare tracts arose around the os uteri internum, the lips
of that orifice were more or less bare, but the areas intervening were rugose.
The bare tracts not interrupted by the orifice leading into the left horn ran forwards
along the wall of the uterus, and when they reached the proper cavity of
the right hom they were broad, but secondary bare tracts originated between
them. The bare tracts were not so broad as the cryptose tracts. In some parts
these bare tracts became broken up into round bare areas, much as in Orcella.
On the remainder of the right hom the linear arrangement of the bare tracts was
less, and that surface opposite to the os uteri internum was irregularly covered
with broad bare areas and cryptose tracts. The area immediately around the orifice
of the Eallopian tube was bare. The long bare tract corresponding much in position
to the attachment of the broad ligament, divided as it approached the Eallopian
pole of the gravid hom, but the right branch was very short and broad, whereas the
left branch dilated at first considerably, and then broke up and lost itself among the
surrounding feebly cryptose surface of the mucosa. The area at the bifurcation
of the long bare tract was more cryptose than the surrounding parts. The general
arrangement of the bare tracts was in the direction of the long axis of the right horn.
In the left hom, the distribution of the narrow bare tracts followed the
same course as in the right hom. Immediately around the orifice of the Fallopian
tube there was a great nude area extending almost over one-third of the surface
of. the mucosa, and there were numerous isolated bare spots among the surrounding
cryptose tissue, some tending to form linear tracts.
In both horns, the surface of the bare tracts, in many places, I observed to
be marked by minute depressions or pits easily visible with a hand-lens, and it
appears probable that these will be found to be the orifices of the utricular glands.
These structures, however, I failed to detect in fine sections under the microscope,
but Professors Sharpey and Turner have demonstrated their presence in the uterine
mucosa of the species of Manis which they both examined.
On tying the ruptured end of the right sac of the membranes and dilating
the membranes with water, it was found on examining them under water that the