XVII. On the generation of the marsupial animals, with a description of the impregnated uterus of the Kangaroo

Abstract

The Marsupiata , or Animalia crumenata , as the learned Scaliger designated the few American species which were known in his time, now form in the systems of natural history an extensive series, embracing genera nourished by every variety of food, and exercising in quest of it as many different modes of locomotion as have been observed in other quadrupeds. Their instruments of progression, prehension, and digestion accordingly exhibit corresponding modifications of structure; while in other parts of their organization peculiarities are found to prevail with a degree of uniformity that justifies the consideration of the Marsupiata as a distinct group of Mammalia . In all the genera of this group the uterus is double, and the true vagina is separated, either wholly or for a considerable extent, into two lateral canals. Both the digestive and generative tubes terminate within a common cloacal outlet, and the term Monotremata , therefore, though confined to the Edentate Marsupiata , is so far applicable to the whole of this aberrant division.