As far as my researches go , the above description will apply to the Weberian organ in-all Apes. At least I have found it thus in Inuas Qynomolgus (in whom it was formerly described by Bergmann§), in Janus mines trinus, Cynocephalas Illaimon, and a species of Harpale (Harpale Iacchus?) which, with all the animals I examined, was placed at my disposal from the stores of the Physiological Institute of this place.
Among the Bats I have found a Weberian organ hitherto only in Vespertilio marinas. Here it is a small corpuscle, scarcely one line in size, between the ejaculatory ducts. It is covered by the prostate, and opens at the usual place by a small and scarcely visible aperture. In Piccolos auritus I have sought after it in vain. So also in Galeopithecus variegtztus, where the points of opening of the two seminal ducts are placed close together upon a small and elongated verutnontanum.
Insectivora.— The Erinaceus Tulin Europatz*, Sorex araztcus, and Macro sedates Rozeti were examined : only in the last is a Weberian organ present. It is a roundish flask, which is proportionately of a very considerable size, being fully one Erie long, and quite as broad at the end. It opens, by means of a short constricted neck, into the uro-genital canal between the two seminal ducts. The prostate, which consists, as in the Sorex, of two compound gland-tubes, lies in front of the utriculus, and close to it, but without covering it. The thickened lower ends of the seminal ducts receive it between them, and are united to it by areolar tissue.
Term.—In the dog and the cat the Weberian organ forms, as Weber has shown, a long small bladder of some•lines in size, which is, for the most part, placed before the prostate in a fold of peritoneum stretching between the two ejaculatory ducts. There is no open ing into the urethra.
The description of Webert certainly holds good in many instances, yet not in all. I have examined numerous dogs and cats, and have very frequently found, instead of a vesi cular structure, a simple solid cylindrical cord, which I have regarded as an obliterated ru diment of the organ. In many individuals even this could not be detected. 1 also fon,nd the Weberian organ as a solid cord in the fix and leopard. The striped lzycena, on
the contrary, possesses an elongated flask shaped Weberian corpuscle; but it, together with the ends of the seminal ducts, is hidden between the two kidney-shaped halves of the large prostate.1 The latter are only fused posteriorly ; in the larger anterior half they are united by areolar tissue into a common mass. There is no opening into the uro genital canal, and I have found none in any of the beasts of prey examined.
The Weberian organ of the otter, which Leydig* has described, is of unusual form, and much more considerable development. It lies between the urinary bladder and the two seminal ducts, and consists of a body about six lines in length and propor tional breadth, the upper free end of which is drawn out right and left into a long and thin thread lying on the seminal duct. The cavities and their openings could not be ex amined ; but without doubt both were pre sent. The Weberian organ is very similar in the Ilfeles Taxus. It is a very considerable cylinder, which measures about ten lines, and rises to the hinder surface of the glandular ends of the visa deferentia, being very firmly united to them by areolar tissue. The upper end is folded into two horns, only the right of which is permeable to a short distance. The left is, from its root onwards, a solid thin thread, which is closely attached to the corresponding vas deferens. Its cavity is that of a canal, but not so wide a one as might he guessed from the exterior thickness of the body ; and it opens by a distinct aper ture on the verumontanum.
The genitals of a young male seal, probably Phoca vitulina, were examined by me. Here I saw a scarcely visible linear fold, which led to a longish Weberian organ of about two lines in size. The fold lay close behind a small ridge-shaped verumontanum, on which were the orifices of the vasa defe rentia, situated close to each other. As in the dog, the organ is situated partly in front of, partly beneath, a prostate, which in form and development also corresponds with that gland in the dog.
Marsupialia. — In Didelphys Virginiana the only animal of this order whose male genitals I had, no trace of the Weberian corpuscle was present.