HANCOCK ON TTTE ANATOMY OF OnuaMKATE CEPHALOPODA. VH 



blood-vessels and nerves, which fold unites thi«- \ iscii- to tlie anterior 

 extremity of the genital organ. The latter is also attached to the 



posterior exuvinii y of the chamber by the tame membrane in 

 Ommm l replies and J.oligo ; but in iSfeptfi and SepioJa this extremity 

 is free. 



There are two oviduets in Qmmast re m fr m? all the other species 

 that I have dissected have only one, which is situated on the right 

 side. They open through the lateral Avails of the chamber, and lit; 

 apparently, between these walls and that forming the boundary of the 

 abdomen, The male intromittent ongan, which is always angle, is 

 situated on the Fight side, and the vas deferens coinnnmieates with 

 the chamber by a small orifice opening through the wall of the 

 same side. 



Besides the genital outlets, there are other two. as in the Octo- 

 podidce, which bring this chamber into communication with the venal 

 cavity. Here, however, in the place of long, fine, duct-like tubes, 

 there are short, wide, flattened channels, which pass from the sines 

 of the chamber in front, and dipping downwards and forwards, be- 

 tween the wall of the body and that of the renal chamber, open into 

 the latter immediately behind the nipples that communicate with the 

 branchial chamber. These channels, which open into the renal 

 chamber by slit-formed orifices, remind us of the manner in which 

 the ureters open into the bladder in the higher animals. 



There can be no doubt that the genital chambers in the two 

 groups are homologous. The feet that, in both, they always contain 

 the special genital organ — that the excretory channels of these organs 

 always open into them in the same manner— and that they are always 

 in communication with the renal chamber, sufficiently establishes this 

 relationship. 



The two additional, small, lateral chambers in the Octopodida are 

 nothing more than enlargements on the channels of communication 

 between the two chambers. Indeed, the chamber in the LoVujinidcc 

 diflers from that in the Octopodida chiefly in the fact, that the former 

 contains, in addition to the special genital organ, the stomach and 

 caecum; these organs, in the latter, being placed in what M. Edwards, 

 in the "Voyage en Sieile," premiere partie, p. 123, designates the 

 visceral or abdominal chamber; which in the Lcliginidce is either 

 wholly or in part wanting. These digestive organs are therefore 

 developed backwards, and are consequently thrust, as it were, into 

 the genital chamber, bulging in its anterior wall, which becomes 

 reflected over them in the manner we have seen. 



The true nature of these chambers is a matter of no little in' 

 We have seen nothing to warrant the idea that they are directly 

 connected with tbej vascular system, and certainly nothing to ju-oxe 

 that they are for the purpose of receiving water from the exterior; 

 but rather, on the contrary, that they form part of an apparatus for 

 ejecting from the system the effete, nitrogenous, or urinary matters, 

 and along with them the redundant (luids. J3ut we mm I a 



