<^117. 



THE HELMINTHES. 



125 



Thej send off two varicose Vasa deferentia to the posterior portion of 

 the body, where, after uniting very probably with the neck of an odd 

 elongated vesicle (Fe^räiZa 5e/?^^7^a/w ?), they are prolonged into a copula- 

 tory organ/^* There are six pyriforni bodies, which secrete a finely-granu- 

 lar substance, and are- attached behind the testicles to the Vasa dtferentia. 

 Their six excretory ducts successively unite, ending finally in two which 

 open into the copulatory oi'gan/-'' The penis is usually folded inward, but 

 when projecting outwardly, it is a nuiscular, cup-shaped appendage, whose 

 fossa receives the posterior portion of the body of the female during 

 copulation.^"' 



The spermatic particles are developed after the usual mode ; they are 

 filiform and very active, and quickly die in water, interlooping and 

 twisting together/'^ 



The very adhesive, viscous, yellowish-brown wax-like substance, often 

 found about the vulva, is apparently the secretion of the pyriform bodies 

 during copulation/^' 



§ in. 



With the Nematodes, the genital organs consist of a long, simple or 

 partly double caecal tube, which winds around the straight intestine. 



In the female it has the following parts : Ovarium, Tuba Fallopii, 

 Uterus, and Vagina; and in the male. Testes, Vas deferens, Vesicula 

 seminalis, and Ductus ejaculatorius. 



With Trichosoma, Trichocephalus, and Spkaerularia, the genital tube is 

 simple in the females, and usually so in the males. But in Filaria, Asca- 

 ris, Strongylus, Spiroptera, Oxyuris, and Anguillula, the ovary. Fallopi- 

 an tube, and uterus, are double.'^' In the females, the ovary is the poste- 

 rior portion of this genital tube, and in its terminal portion are small round 



4 With Echinorlnjnchus strumosn.i, these two 

 round testicles are side by side. Having always 

 found the odd, long vesicle empty, I cannot decide 

 whether or not it serves the function of a seminal 

 vesicle. 



5 These six pyriform bodies were formerly taken 

 for seminal vesicles ; see Westrumb, de Helminth. 

 Acanthocei)halis, p. 55, Tab. III. fig. 24 ; and 

 ffitzsck, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop. VII. 

 1821, plate for the Acanthocephala, fig. 2, 3, i. 

 ■yVith Ecninorhynchus claviceps, I have found 

 only one of these bodies. ■ 



(J The copulatory organ, which protruded has 

 mostly an ol)lique direction, has l)etn very exactly 

 figured by IJujardin (Hist. d. Helm. p. 493, PI. 

 VII. fig. D, 1, A, 2). 



<■ For the spermatic particles of the Acanthoce- 

 phali, see my observations in MüUer's Arch. 

 1836, p. 232. 



s This waxy substance incrusts sometimes the 

 whole caudal extremity of females ; this is so with 

 Echinorhynchus gigaa, and slobocaudatux ; see 

 Cloquet (Anat. &c. &c. p. 100, PI. VIII. fig. 

 4, 5) and Nitzsch (^fViegmann^s Arch. 1837, I. 

 p. 64.* 



1 For the simple genital tube with its various 

 parts of the female of Trichocephalus dixpar, see 

 Mayer, Beitr. &c. Taf. II. With Filaria rigida. 



and Ascaris paucipara, I have found the female 

 organs likewise simple. When these organs are 

 double, either one uterus with its ovary and ovi- 

 duct passes in front from the simple vagina, while 

 the other passes behind, as is the case with Ascaris 

 brevicaudnta, nigrovenosa, Oxyuris vermicu- 

 laris, Spiroptera unthuris, Strongylus auricn- 

 laris, and striatus ; or both pass side by side 

 behind, as in Ascaris aucta, rnystax, lumbri- 

 coides (Cloquet, Anat. &c. PI. I. fig. 2) and aus- 

 culala. With Cucullanus elesans, and micro- 

 cephalus (from the intestine of Emys lularia}, 

 the uterus alone is double ; one horn terminating 

 postei-iorly in a caecum without an ovary or Falla- 

 pian tube, while the other, which has tl'iese pjirts, 

 passes in front. There are, moreover, species of 

 Ascaris into whose vagina open three or four geni- 

 tal tubes. Thus with Ascaris microcephala, I 

 have seen the uterus divide upon reaching the 

 vagina into three tubes, each having an ovary and 

 oviduct. According to Nathusias (fViegm'ann's 

 Arch. 1837, I. p. 57), the uterus or Filaria labiata^ 

 which is at first simjjle, divides at its posterior e.\- 

 tremity into five tubes. 



Tlie double uterus of Strongylus inflexus has, 

 posteriorly, numerous constrictions, giving it a 

 moniliform aspect. 



* [§ 116, note 8.] For some further details on 

 the genitalia of the Acanthocephali, see Blanchard 

 (Ann. d. So. Nat. 1849, XII. p. 23), a«d Regne 

 11# 



animal nouv. edit. Zoophytes, PI. XXXV. fig. Sb, 

 3-, 31, 3-, 3'). —Ed. 



