Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![amining accurately their structure, and making out their place in the scale of animals; and it is to him that we are indebted for the following observations upon them, in which the anatomical structure is purposely avoided, as. being little calculated for the generality of readers of a.work of this kind.’’] Ir is much to be wished that those gentlemen who are desirous of obliging their friends, and promoting the study of natural history, by sénding home specimens, would endeavour to procure all the information they can relating to such specimens as they may collect, more especially animals. The subjects themselves may be valuable, and may partly explain their connection with those related to them, so as in some measure to establish their place in nature,* but they cannot do it entirely ; they only give us the form and construction, but leave us in other re- spects to conjecture, many of them requiring further observation relative to their ceconomy. . A neglect in procuring this information has left us almost to this day very ignorant of that part of the natural history of animals which is the most interesting. The Opossum is a remarkable in- stance of this. There is something in the mode of propagation in this animal, that deviates from all others; and although known in some degree to be extraordinary, yet it has never been attempted, where opportunity offered, to complete the investigation. I have often endeavoured to breed them in England; I have bought a great many, and my friends have assisted me by bringing them or sending them alive, yet never could get them to breed ; and although ‘possessed of a great many facts respecting them, I do not believe my information is sufficient to complete the system of propagation in this class.t * [It is interesting to meet with these indications of the spirit in which Hunter prosecuted his zoological researches. ‘To ascertain the affinities of the animals whose structure he explored, or, in other words, to establish a natural system of classification, was not less the aim of Hunter than the determination of the functions of the different organs in the animal frame; and the truth of the remark of the necessity of combining observation of the living habits of animals, with anatomical and zoological research, in order to establish entirely their place in nature, as well as to fully understand their ceconomy, is now universally admitted.] : T [Since the time of Mr. Hunter, the kangaroo by breeding in this country has afforded the opportunity of elucidating many of the peculiarities of the generative ceconomy of the Marsupial quadrupeds. ‘These peculiarities are not confined to the female. In the male, the testicles are situated in an exte rnal fold of the in- tegument, corresponding in situation to the internal fold which constitutes the marsupial pouch in the female, and the scrotum thus formed is consequently anterior to the penis. The cremaster muscles wind round the supplementary bones attached to the pubis, which act as fulcra to the muscles, and enable them to compress the gland with a force which seems to be demanded in consequence of the tortuosity of the double vagina alone which the semen hasto be propelled. ‘Fhe coitus is of long duration in the kangaroo, and the scrotum disappear during the forcible retraction of the testes against the marsupial bones, The female kangaroo is pregnant for the space of thirty-eight days, when uterine birth takes place, andthe embryo, now about an inch in length, is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33292292_0477.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
