544 Mr. W. S. Macteay’s Anatomical Observations 
fact from all other species of Tethya, not only with respect to the 
singular form of the intestinal canal, but inasmuch as the branchial 
vein is thus placed, in relation to the pharynx, directly opposite 
to its position in all other animals of this group. I therefore am 
induced in some measure to suppose that there is a monstrous 
formation in the intestinal canal of the only specimen which 1 
have had the means of examining ; a supposition which must of 
course for the present throw doubt on any generic character 
which might be drawn from the above description of the intes- 
tinal canal. If, indeed, we could imagine that, were it not for 
some monstrosity of structure, the intestinal canal would com- 
municate with the branchial cavity by that end which, from its 
being free, I have been obliged to consider the anus, then the 
whole of the internal organs of nutrition would have a situation 
analogous to that of those of Boltenia. For instance, there would 
then be a short cesophagus opening near the anal orifice of the 
envelope, an ascending stomach, a long curved intestine, and 
descending rectum, while the branchial vein and heart would 
take their usual situation in respect to the pharynx and stomach. 
We know, moreover, from those Memoirs of Savigny, to which 
I have in the course of this paper had so often occasion to refer, 
that the digestive organs of the Tunicata are subject to analogous 
derangements, of which he has figured two remarkable examples 
in Cynthia momus and Phallusia turcica. It appears, indeed, to 
be a consequence of the low rank of these animals in the scale 
of being, and of their simple organization, that the organs appa- 
rently most essential to their existence may undergo the greatest 
inversions without affecting their life; for the monstrous Cynthia 
momus, described by Savigny, as well as the Cystingia, now under 
consideration, had its ovaries full of eggs. 
The Cystingia Griffithsii has no liver very distinct, unless a 
substance which appears to coat a very small part of the sto- 
mach 
