480 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



some anatomists to be glandular organs,* which undoubtedly they 

 are ; but it is erroneous to assert that they " contain no trace of mus- 

 cular fibres." Such fibres assuredly exist, and are most plentiful, 

 lining the inner surface of the cavity, where they form numerous 

 circular meshes of various sizes, bordering the orifices of the channels, 

 that permeate the substance of the organ in all directions. -Fibres, 

 also, pass in every direction through the glandular mass of the walls. 

 There can, therefore, be no question as to their being blood-propelling 

 organs, though they are at the same time glandular. 



Attached to these curious compound organs are the so-called 

 " fleshy appendages" before alluded to, the true nature of which 

 is still an enigma. They are usually of a rounded form, smooth 

 externally, with the interior cavernous, wrinkled, and irregularly 

 laminated. They are attached to the heart by a short, constricted 

 peduncle and, on the opposite surface, there is an irregularly-formed 

 opening, leading into the interior. The walls of the organ are com- 

 posed almost entirely of a soft, tender parenchyma, formed, for the 

 most part, of vascular ramifications, the trunks of which, three or 

 four in number, communicate with the interior of the branchial heart, 

 through the peduncle. The walls of these trunks and of the peduncle 

 are composed of stout, tough membrane. The cavity of the appendage 

 does not communicate with that of the heart, but opens, as we have 

 seen, externally, or into the chamber within which the organ is 

 placed, so that the fluid surrounding it will bathe its inner as well as 

 its outer surface. 



On examining microscopically, the membrane lining the inner 

 surface, it is seen to be covered with minute, obtuse, cylindrical 

 papillae, filled with very small granular cells. 



Difficult as it has been to determine the anatomy of this organ, it 

 is still more so to assign to it its proper function, though it is evi- 

 dently of much importance in the economy of these animals. We 

 have seen, in the Loliginidw, that these appendages lie within the great 

 genital chamber, and are bathed by the fluid therein contained. 

 And where, as in the Octopodidw, this chamber is modified, there is a 

 special apparatus provided, by means of which the appendages are 

 still kept in contact with the fluid coming from that chamber. They 

 therefore appear to have some relation to this fluid, the nature of 

 which it becomes of importance to examine. 



But first as to the genital chamber itself, and the others asso- 

 ciated with it. In the Octoj)odid&, as we have seen, there are five of 

 these chambers, and only two in the Loliginidce. These two, how- 

 ever, are homologically equivalent to the five in the former; which are 

 made up by the renal chamber being divided by a septum, and by 

 the two small additional, lateral chambers containing the cardiac 

 appendages, the lateral chambers themselves being nothing more than 



* Anatomy of the Invertebrata, by C. Th. v. Siebold, translated by W. J. Bur- 

 nett, p. 292. 



