II. On the bursa fabricii

Abstract

In this paper I have the honour to submit to the Society some observations which I have made on the Bursa Fabricii—an organ respecting the function of which so little has yet been determined with any certainty, some physiologists regarding it, after the manner of the author who first described it, as a receptaculum seminis, others as the analogue of Cowper’s glands, others as that of the prostate; and one as that of the urinary bladder of fishes. For the sake of order and to save some repetition, before entering into particulars it may not be amiss to state briefly that this peculiar organ, in every instance it is met with, is found to lie low in the cavity of the pelvis, behind the intestine, either directly in the median line, or a little on one side of it; that it is covered anteriorly by the reflected peritoneum; is composed mainly of two coats, one an outer muscular, the other an inner mucous, the latter in the instances of most development abounding in follicles; that it communicates with the cloaca by an opening, in the female, close to the entrance of the oviduct, in the male between and a little inferior to that of each vas deferens, in both inferior to the termination of the ureters; and that it has over its orifice, when most perfect, a slight valvular fold, affording some, but not perfect, security against the entrance into its cavity of fæcal matter whilst passing in the act of expulsion.