the Seminal Fluid of Animals. 337 



gans composed of small twisted cul-de-sacs, situated at each side 

 of the reservoir of the penis. These organs were formerly re- 

 garded as a kind of epididymis, or as seminal vesicles. The se- 

 cretion is full of bodies, which consist of small vesicles, having 

 an irregular form, and exhibiting only very slow motions. Be- 

 tween these, short and tolerably thick peduncles are seen, instead 

 of long thin filaments. 



" The animals referred to in the foregoing observations are 

 hermaphrodites ; and it may certainly be urged, that the results 

 obtained from an examination of the productive secretion, which 

 in them is the male semen, do not authorise us to draw any di- 

 rect conclusions with reference to the seminal fluid of these ani- 

 mals, among which the different parts of generation are possess- 

 ed by different individuals. But the observations which I have 

 made on the organized parts of the semen of winged insects, 

 agree very closely with what I have discovered in snails. I 

 made these observations chiefly on the Cantharis livida, which 

 pairs through the whole month of July, and can be collected in 

 great numbers. This beetle has two testicles, each of which is 

 composed of an extremely delicate vessel, covered with brownish- 

 red vesicles, and emptying itself into a muscular seminal reser- 

 voir. Viewed through a glass of a magnifying power of 300, 

 round figures are seen on the internal surface of the secreting 

 vessel ; and, on tearing the latter, a whitish fluid escapes, which 

 contains round disciform bodies, along with a mass of very mi- 

 nute vesicles. These discs bear a strong resemblance to those 

 found in the secretion of the testicles in snails ; but they are 

 smaller, being only 0,006 of a millimetre in diameter. Many of 

 them possess, like those of the snail, a border consisting of a 

 transparent ring, and a filamentary attachment, which, however, 

 is shorter and not so rigid as that found in connection with the 

 discs observed in the seminal fluid of snails. Their internal 

 composition cannot be distinctly ascertained, even with the as- 

 sistance of a glass capable of magnifying about 500 times. They 

 move but slowly ; they change their forms, however, from time 

 to time by contractions, and occasionally turn round in such a 

 manner as to exhibit their small sides, on which they appear of 

 a lenticular shape. On detached portions of the secreting ves- 

 sel they are sometimes seen in congregated masses, resting on 



