| OCR Text |
Show 296 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE GREAT ANTEATER. [Mar. 7, 3. Female Generative Organs (fig. 6, p. 297).-These have been briefly described by Pouch et1, as well as by Rapp ; but their accounts will, in some respects, bear supplementing. A cloaca, in the true sense of the word, is not present in the Great Anteater. The labia major a, which bound the vertical u r o genital fissure, are very prominent and hirsute. Above them, but separated by a distinct perineal space, slightly hair-clad, is the transverse anal aperture, the mucous membrane lining which is pink, quite different from that of the lower passage and its boundaries, which is grey. Slightly inclosing these two apertures above is a widely-open V-shaped tegumentary fold, with its apex situated superiorly towards the root of the tail. There are no labia minora visible; and no clitoris is present as a free organ, though the corpora cavernosa can be felt as tough bodies lying in the walls of the vulva. The length of the urino-genital canal is 2*7 inches: about 1 inch from its external orifice m a y be seen, on each side of the middle line, two or three small pore-like depressions; a bristle passed through the largest of these enters a short duct, connected with one of a pair of globular compact glands about the size of a small cherry, which lie in the walls of the urino-genital canal above, between it and the rectum. They are, no doubt, " vulvo-vaginal " glands, or glands of Bertolini, corresponding to the male Cowper's. The urino-genital canal is lined by smooth, vascular, mucous membrane. Communication between this and the next section of these organs is effected by means of two small apertures, each admitting readily enough the passage into the vagina, through the here constricted walls of the common tube, of a probe. From between these apertures is prolonged downwards, for a slight distance along the dorsal wall of the urino-genital canal, a slight ridge of mucous membrane, on each side of which are visible numerous small pore-like apertures, arranged in series in lines running outwards from the middle line. O n laying open the vagina along its anterior wall, it is seen to pass above with no marked constriction or " os uteri" into the pyriform simple uterus, the only distinction between the two parts being afforded by the thicker and more muscular walls of the uterus, and by the difference in the character of the mucous membrane, this being quite smooth and spongy in the uterus, whilst that of the vagina is thrown into a close-set series of thick, more or less longitudinal, somewhat foliaceous plaits. For about the lower inch of the vagina there extends a complete median septum, attached to both dorsal and ventral walls of the tube, extending a little further along the dorsal wall, and terminating superiorly by a free semilunar margin, concave upwards. Hence the terminal part of the vagina consists of two quite separate tubes, fused together above, but each opening into the urino-genital sinus by a single aperture of its own below. The vagina proper measures about 4 inches in length. The pyriform uterus is not more than 2 inches long : it presents not the slightest sign of being double. Its walls are very thick and muscular ; 1 Mem. p. 194. |
