478 OEIGINAL ARTICLES. 



sufficient confidence ; but as I have succeeded in injecting a minute 

 network of vessels on the stomach in one instance, and that not under 

 the most favourable circumstances, I cannot doubt that the peripheral 

 portion of the vascular system is as complete as the central, and that 

 I shall be able to demonstrate this so soon as I shall obtain suitable 

 and fresh specimens. Neither must we forget that Kolliker (Entwick- 

 elungsgeschichte der Cephalopoden), states that he has observed 

 capillary vessels in the embryo of Sepia, and that H. Muller describes 

 them. We may therefore, I think, fairly assume, for the present, 

 that the vascular system is throughout supplied with proper walls. 

 And here the question naturally arises, How then does the chyle 

 enter into the circulation ? 



From whatever point of view we look at this important question, 

 we find it beset with difficulties. Supposing, for instance, that we 

 adopt the opinion of Milne Edwards, that the great dorsal blood sinus 

 is nothing more than a visceral chamber, more or less developed, 

 forming an extensive hiatus in the continuity of the vascular system, 

 it is not easy to see how the chyle could find its way into this reser- 

 voir, even were it devoid of walls. In those mollusks which have the 

 intestine floating in the visceral chamber, the chyle may be supposed 

 to exude through the walls of that tube, and thus at once pass into 

 the circulation. But in the Cephalopoda the intestine is not so 

 situated. On the contrary, it is placed on the ventral, or opposite 

 side of the body, having the liver above it. It is not, however, in 

 contact with that viscus, but is separated from it by a stout muscular 

 membrane, which entirely cuts the intestine off from all communi- 

 cation with every portion of the so-called visceral chamber. In fact, 

 in most of the Loliginidce, the greater portion of the intestine is 

 placed, along with the great cephalic vein and duct of the ink-bag, 

 in a confined space, bounded above, by this membrane, below, by the 

 external wall of the abdomen, and behind, by that of the renal 

 chamber : in front, the space is closed by the coalescence of the said 

 membrane and the abdominal wall. And here the intestine lies 

 closely packed in juxta-position with the above-mentioned organs; the 

 whole being bound together and firmly attached to the surrounding 

 walls by areolar tissue. In the Octopodidce, the intestine is also to a 

 great extent similarly situated ; but the convoluted portion is thrust 

 further back between the wall of the renal chamber and that of the 

 right side of the aMomen. How, then, the chyle is to find its way 

 from the intestine to the so-called visceral chamber it is impossible 

 to say. Milne Edwards does not explain how this is effected : on the 

 contrary, his injections prove that the visceral chamber is bounded 

 by a wall, and is entirely cut off from the space in which the intestine 

 is placed. 



The difficulty is not much lessened by assuming the absence of 

 capillaries ; for nearly all the viscera, whose veins might be supposed 

 to take up the chyle mingled with the extravasated blood, are con- 

 fined in chambers which are equally cut off from the space in which 



