THE ACANTHOCEPHALA. 555 



gives attachment to the suspensory ligament of the repro- 

 ductive apparatus (Fig. 157, B). Two other bands are at- 

 tached a little above these, and run obliquely forward to the 

 parietes ; they are not mere muscles, as they are ordinarily 

 described, but contain a wide vessel, continuous with a large 

 sinus, which separates the axile portion of the stem of the 

 proboscis from its investing coat. In the axis of the stem of 

 the proboscis is the oval ganglion, which sends ofiP some small 

 branches upward, and two larger lateral trunks, which can 

 be followed into the vessels of the oblique bands ; and, in 

 other species, have been traced to the walls of the body and 

 to the genital openings. Two ganglia have been found by 

 Schneider in this region in the males. 



There is no mouth or alimentary canal in Echinorhynchus, 

 the animal being probably nourished by imbibition through 

 the walls of the body. The reproductive organs are, both in 

 the male and in the female, attached by a suspensory liga- 

 ment to the extremity of the proboscis, and extend thence, 

 through the axis of the body, to the posterior extremity. 

 Here they open in a papilla at the bottom of a funnel-shaped 

 terminal dilatation of the body, which exists both in the male 

 and in the female, though it is much more marked, and sepa- 

 rated by a constricted neck from the body, in the former. 

 Oa each side of the papilla is an organ which has much the 

 appearance of a sucker, but which is apparently noncontrac- 

 tile, while the funnel itself undergoes constant and rhythmi- 

 cal contractions. 



In the male the testes are two oval sacs, one behind the 

 other, connected by vasa deferentia, often provided with pe- 

 culiar accessory glands, with the genital outlet, which is pro- 

 vided with a long penis. In the female the ovary is a single, 

 long, thin-walled, cylindrical tube, the anterior end of which 

 is usually empty for a short distance. Further back, clear, 

 pale, rounded masses appear, containing cavities in which cor- 

 puscles, like the germinal spots of ova, lie. More posteriorly 

 still, these masses become elliptical, and are surrounded by a 

 membranous coat, which gradually thickens, and gives rise at 

 each end to a spiral filament which surrounds the inclosed 

 e^g. The ova thus constituted then pass into the cavity of 

 th3 body, where they accumulate in great numbers ; but, in 

 this species, I have not found the free floating ovarian masses 

 described in other Echinorhynchi. From the lower end of 

 the ovarium two short oviducts, or rather spermiducts, arise, 

 and almost immediately unite into a sort of uterus, which is 



