MR. F. D. DYSTER ON PHORONIS HIPPOCREPIA. 255 
ne renferme des éléments *morphotiques' quelconques, c’est-à-dire des globules.” And 
Mr. Huxley* says, “it may be considered an established fact that, whatever the func- 
tions of the varied vascular system and its contents in different classes of the Annuloida, 
they have nothing to do with the blood or the blood-vessels. The latter are entirely 
absent in the Annuloida at present known, the blood being simply contained in the peri- 
visceral cavity and its processes.” Nothing short of the most patient observation would 
have induced me to state a fact which is incompatible with the opinions and observations 
of Mr. Huxley and Milne-Edwards; but while my own investigations leave no room for 
doubt that the proper fluid of the vascular system in Phoromis consists of a colour- 
less liquor sanguinis densely crowded with red corpuscles, I am confirmed in the pro- 
bability of the fact by the discovery of globules in the vascular system of Glycera by 
M. de Quatrefages, against whose accuracy I do not think the sweeping statement of 
Dr. Williams is a sufficient balance. Not only is it easy to define the vessels which con- 
tain the corpuscles in the living worm, but I have several times, under the compressorium, 
succeeded in isolating a capillary loop with its string of globules. 
There are one or two other points in which the Phoronis deviates very remarkably from 
the Annelidan type. In the position of the anus at the anterior extremity in close proxi- 
mity to the mouth, it stands, I believe, alone, though Mr. Busk has reminded me of the 
analogy which this presents to the arrangement in Sipunculus, the annulose form of the 
Echinoderms. The development of the nervous system is very small—indeed at present, 
as before remarked, I cannot do more than guess at the presence of two æsophageal ganglia, 
—while there is no trace of eye-spots, nor does the creature, like Serpula and Sabella, 
exhibit any appearance of sensibility to light. Negatively, Dr. Wright confirms this view 
inasmuch as he makes no allusion to the nervous system, while Professor Allmant distinctly 
says he could perceive none. In all the Capitibranchiate Annelids the pharynx is short 
and muscular, while in Phoronis it is long and presents no appreciable trace of muscular 
structure. In the same division, the alimentary tube has numerous dilatations corre- 
sponding to the somites, while in Phoronis it is a simple canal, and there exist neither 
external segments nor internal septa, and there is no approach to pedal lobes, hooks, 
paleæ or bristles. I believe that in Phoronis there is no perivisceral cavity ; at all events, 
there are no corpuscles such as are present in the perivisceral fluid of other Annelida. 
I am indebted to my friend Mrs. Brett for the figures, which she has translated into 
beauty from my rough diagrams. 
* Lectures on Natural History, Medical Gazette, vol. xxxiv. p. 385. 
+ Freshwater Polyzoa (Ray Society), p- 55. note, 
