To Richard Owen   25 August 1864

Melbourne botan. Garden,

25 Aug 1864,

Dear Prof. Owen.

It affords me extreme pleasure to inform you, that I have forwarded to you under special care of Capt. Gray, commander of the "Great Britain", a small cask, containing a male & female Echidna Hystrix (immersed in Alcohol), and besides a small package containing the young animal in an early state of development. After receiving many female specimens in an unimpregnated state, I at last obtained one, which (though perhaps prematurely) had given birth to a young. Lest an accident should occur in the transmission, my friend Dr James Rudall, a distinguished operat. surgeon of this city, and myself dissected preliminary the mother animal, and byefollowing we offer the results of our observations, as far as they refer to the fecundation of this species. It so happened that Dr Rudall & myself were at the time both unusually occupied in our ordinary respective professional duties, and hence we did not so far penetrate with our investigations as originally contemplated; other wise we would have missed the opportunity of sending you the specimina by the Great Britain. But as your unparalleled knowledge alone can do full justice to the subject, we were also glad not to anticipate your researches, regretting only that the material is still so imperfect as to leave the generative process of the Monotremata almost as much as before in mystery & obscurity. From our notes & more particularly from the examination of the specimina you will observe, that whilst we see a great resemblance between the generative organs of the Echidna & Ornithorrynchus and between the young of either, we are also unable to conceive how the nutrition of the young Echidna, especially in its earlier stages is effected. It is however our intention to follow up the subject as closely as we can, & some fortunate event, we hope, will some day place into our hands a mother animal with the young in situ.

It appeared to us desirable to send also a male Echidna well developed; for the male organ is most singular & the testicles are so large; & many other points connected with the anatomy of this creature appear to us deserving attention, if no opportunity was afforded to you before, to subject it to a vigorous examination. If an essay on the subject is already extant we are not aware of it, and as neither of us had at the moment leisure to trace it out in any of the periodicals (even if fully accessible) foreign or British in which the respective evidence may have been already deposited we thought best to send the male also. Should individual animals fall into our hands, from which the embryology and Development of the Echidna can be fully illustrated, Dr Rudall & myself will invite the learned Prof of Anatomy of the University of Melbourne, Dr Halford, to aid us with his skill, in order that not unnecessarily any rare specimens may be risked before the results for your use are secured. It occurs to me, that the offer of a large premium might have the effect of induc[e]ing many inhabitants, living in favorable spots, to spend the neccessary time and exertions in searching carefully after the Ornithorrhynchus & Echidna in a gravid state.

Would it be possible for you to send me from the British Museum a good-sized cask with preservation-liquid for such or any other animals you may need from here for anatomical dissections? Many larger animals, such as the Phascolarctos &c &c which we have hitherto failed to send home, might be brought thus within the reach of your glorious investigations.

You will kindly pardon the inelegance of this letter, written whilst I am embarrassed with the mail work; also the briefness of Dr Rud[e]lls & my notes, which we wrote last night at a late hour.

Respecting the meteorite I shall write to your Colleague Dr Maskelyne, by this mail¹ & trust that you will be pleased with the arrangements finally adopted by this Government in reference to its transmission.

Probably you possess in the British museum the first volume of the work on Australian plants, published under my assistance by Mr Bentham last year. Perhaps it may be pleasing to you to refer to the pages devoted to Owenia,² as they give an account of the wide range of this noble genus of trees over Australia familiarly now know to colonists and travellers as Owenia trees. As a genus Owenia is one of the most marked of the many it has fallen to my share to describe; and moreover it is that, which of all of mine contains most species. I selected it at the time for that purpose as the best I ever had to give away, and as I then had not the honor of being with you in direct communication I trust that you will always kindly regard it as a token of the admiration, which I since my early years entertained for your genius. You were illustrious, when I had hardly seen the light of the world & hence it is quite fascinating to me that it was reserved to me to perpetuate your illustrious name in the systematic appellations of the treasures of natures. Perhaps you would have preferred that your name should have been attached to one of those huge monsters of a byegone creation, for the elucidation of so many we are indebted to you. And indeed by a slight modification of the etymology this tribute may still any day be brought to you from some of those great men, who are advancing palaeontologic enquiry.

In my work on the vegetation of the Chatham-Islands³ (phytologically hitherto almost unknown) I shall briefly but not in an antagonistic spirit expose my views on the limits of species and their immutability. A great Italian, whose judgement has weight, Parlatore in Florence, in a philosophic treatise just received from the hand of its illustrious author, briefly gives the results of his observations on this subject, in which I most fully concur.⁴

Ever with admiration & grateful attachment

your

Ferd. Mueller

⁵ Brief notes on the generative apparatus of the female Echidna.⁶

The animal being excessively difficult to handle it was immersed in cold water and by these means and the additional use of Hydrocyanic Acid its life was extinguished.

A longitudinal incision was made from the orifice of the cloaca upwards to the length of about 5". Five larger and some smaller ovules were found arranged in a grapelike manner, the largest measuring from 1-1 1/2'"⁷ in diameter. Fine vessels expanded reticularly over the surface of the ovules. We vainly endeavoured to trace an opening at the ovarian end of the oviduct. Oviduct about 2" long; its upper extremity expanded and attached to the ovarium. As a probable sign of recent functional activity were noted a number of large veins lying between the layers of the peritoneum. Numerous oval mesenteric glands were seen. Meatus urinarius lying in the inferior wall of the cloaca about 1/2" from the orifice.

The ureter terminates in a conspicuous conical protuberance from 3-4''' long. No other exit for the urine from the bladder being found but the point into which this conical protuberance fits, the ingress and egress of the urin, as far as we believe, takes place at the same aperture.

In close proximity and lateral to it the oviducts terminate by slit-like openings. The mucous membrane of the thick walls of the oviducts are, at least in the lower portion, longitudinally folded. The oviducts are suddenly narrowed for about 1/6" from the lower orifice, offering some resistance to the passage of an ordinary sized probe. The upper portion of the oviduct seems of a structure capable of considerable expansion during gestation. The upper portion was dilated and thin, and a probe could be passed to near one of the ova. The lower portion of the rectum is so large and so capable of distension as to admit of the periodical nidulation⁸ of the young animal, in case its great size should be provided for that purpose, as it is a receptacle large enough for a young animal twice as large as that found now with the mother.

The foetal young may possibly have been extruded prematurely after the capture of the animal. We found no cicatrix of an umbilical cord on the abdomen of the young animal.

A rough sketch of the young, as seen by us, is appended.⁹ It was of a pale color; no apertures for the eyes were yet visible in the skin; nor were any tegumentary appendages formed. The finder¹⁰ contends, that he saw the young external to the mother and alive. We purposely abstained from the internal examination of the young one, so as not to mutilate the only specimen available.

The four mammmary glands at this time are apparently quite rudimentary;¹¹ they are destitute of nipples, as are those of the Ornithorrhynchus. Nor was the least appearance of milk in these glands.

From the imperfect means of judging we had, we incline to the opinion that the Echidna cannot be oviparous.

Ferd. Mueller

James T. Rudall.

Melbourne,

25/8/64

¹² Brief notes on a partial dissection of a male Echidna Hystrix¹³

The abdominal parietes were divided to the extent of about 5" in the middle line; the incision in the skin entering as low as the cloacal orifice. The articulations between the marsupial bones and the pubes were divided.

The opening of the canal leading from the bladder was found situated in the inferior portion of the wall of the rectum, higher up than the corresponding aperture in the female and also much smaller.

Lodged in a sac opening by a plicated aperture into the cloaca, curved like a bow and lying across below the symphysis pubis the penis was seen, its distal end pointing toward the right side. It was remarkable in size and formation, being about 2" long; the distal extremity was found divided vertically into four short closely packed segments.

The testes, situated in the abdomen just below the kidneys were observed to be very large, each being about the size and form of a pigeon’s egg.

The bladder externally viewed seemed to correspond in every respect with the same organ of the female animal.

A small incision was made into the left testis with a view of ascertaining its internal structure.¹⁴

Owenia