^ 259. THE CEPHALOPODA. 297 



Avhieh it is seen of a milk-white color. Its posterior extren.ity Is attached, 

 hy a short, small ligament, to a kind of piston which forms the anterior por- 

 tion of the projectile apparatus. 



This piston is a solid, cylindrical body, continuous behind with a spiral 

 ligament which is contained in a thin sheath extending to the posterior 

 extremity of the tube, in a fold of which it terminates.'-' 



The Spermatophores are evidently formed in the upper glandular portion of 

 the deferent canal, where droplets of sperm are often seen arranged in rows, 

 and, at first, appear surrounded by simple, colorless envelopes ; these, as 

 they advance in the Vas deferens, gradually resemble more and more the 

 perfect Spermatophores. 



Those found in the Bursa Needhamii are always regularly arranged, and 

 sometimes form, lengthwise, several superposed layers. Their anterior 

 extremities always point forwards, and not unfrequently their posterior 

 ends are bound together by long, flattened, interlaced filaments. These 

 Spermatophores are in the highest degree hygroscopic : they absorb liquids 

 very quickly, and then their posterior extremity bursts, allowing the escape 

 ■of the compressed spiral ligament together with its sheath, and the piston, 

 which draws with it the sperm-sac to which it is attached.*^' 



The projection of the seminal sacs occurs, most probably, at the moment 

 when, during coition, the Spermatophores pass from the penis of the male 

 into the sac of the mouth of the female. A true intromission of the penis 

 into the female genital opening, appears impossible with these animals, so 

 that coition consists only in a simple juxtaposition of the genital organs.'*' 

 The fecundation of the eggs should occur very early — while the eggs are 



2 Needham (An account of some new Microscop- has figured anew, as an Entozoa, and even as an 

 ical Discoveries, London, 1745, or Nouv. ddcouv. Echinorhynchus, the uncoiled Spermatophores of 

 -faites avec le Microsc. Leyde, 1747, PI. III. IV.), LoLigo (Descriz. lU. 1S41, p. 138. Tav. XI. fig. 

 was the first who described accurately the Sper- 12, 13). fVagner, also, formerly regarded those 

 matophores of Loligo vulgaris. Witli those of of Sepia as containing an Echinnrliynchus, and 

 the Loligina, the posterior extremity is enlarged, has figured as such the piston with the spiral liga- 

 with one or two constrictions, and contains the ment in a rudimentary state (Lehrb. d. vergleich, 

 spiral ligament with its sheath ; the piston also, Anat. 1835, p. 312, and, Mulier^s Arch. 1836, p. 

 from its deep-brown color, is easily seen; see Krohn, 330, Taf. IX. fig. B. C). 



in Froriep^s neue Notiz. XII. 1839, p. 17, fig. 20 Cams went even still further, and described the 



^Sepia); Milne Eduiards, Ann. d. Sc. Nat. XVIII. Spermatophores as gigantic spermatic animals un- 



1842, p. 335, PI. XII. fig. 1-5, XIII. fig. 1-G der the ns.me o{ Needhamia expulsoria ; and re- 



(Lotigo and Sepia); Peters, in Muller's Arch, garded the parts they contained, such as the 



1842, p. 334, Taf. XVI. fig. 11 (5e/)iota). With sperm-sac, the piston, the _ spiral ligament, &c., as 



those of Octopus, and Eledone, the posterior en- a colon, a small intestine, a stomach, a crop, and 



largement is very slight, and often, at this point, an cesophagus (Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. XIX. I. 



the envelope is entirely involuted ; the seminal sac, 1839, p. 3, Tab. I., and Erläuterunpstaf. lue. cit. 



moreover, is remarkable from its spiral form ; see lift. V. 1840, p. 4, Taf. I. fig. 10). It was not until 



Milne Edwards, loc. cit. p. 338, PI. XIII. fig. 1839, a time when several naturalists were con- 



8-10, XIV. fig. 1-6 (Octopus and Eledone); vinced of the presence of spermatic particles in the 



fliitippi, in Mailer's Arch. 1839, p. 301, Taf. XV. sperm-sac, that the true nature of these bodies was 



fig. 1-6 (Eledone); this last author has erroneously fully understood ; see Philippi, in Muller's Arch, 



taken the spiral turns of the ligament for hooks 1839, p. 301,- Krohn, in Froriep's neue Notiz, 



pointing backwards. XII. 1839, p. 17 ; Siebold, Beiträge z. Natur- 



3 Redi (De Animalculis vivis quae in corporibus geschichted. wirbell. Thiere, 1839, p. 51; Peters, in 

 animalium vivorum reperiuntur, Lugd. Batav. 1729, MuUer's Arch. 1840, p. 98, and Milne Edwards, 

 p. 252, Tab. II. fig. 2), was the first who saw Ann. d. Sc. Nat. Xftl. 1840, p. 193. Leuckart 

 these Spermatophores ; but he took them for worms. (Zool. Bruchstücke, Hft. II. 1841, p. 93) has given 

 S wammerdamm, on the other hand (Bib. d. Natur, the history and criticism of the opinions relating to 

 p. 353, Taf LII. fig. 6, 7), and especially Needham the si)erm machines of Needham. 



(loc. cit.), had a correct idea of their nature, for ■* Aristotle (Hist. Animal, lib. V. cap. 5) had 



they regarded the white substance they contained already declared that the Cephalopoda copulate by 



as sperm, and the Spermatophores themselves as a a kind of embrace. From the observations of Le- 



kind of cases or machines. But this did not pre bert and Robin (loc. cit. p. 135, and Ann. d. Sc. 



vent the later anatomists from regarding thera as Nat. IV. 1845, p. 95, PI. I.X. fig. 5, 6), it would 



pariisites. Thus Delle Chiaje described those of appear that the males do not deposit the spermatic 



Octopus and Sepia under the names of Monosto- particles further in than the cavity of the mantle 



mum octopodis, a.nd Scolex dibothrius (Mem. IV. of the females; for they observed, with a female 



p. 53, Tav. LV. fig. 8, 14, 9, d.'i). Even latterly, this Loligo, numerous Spermatophores glued to the 



Jiaturalist has not relinquished this opinion, for he internal sui'face of this cavity, near the oviduct. 



