74 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. XV, 



excentric, spherical, and contains a pseiidonucleolus ; there is a large 

 clear vacuole in the middle of each. 



(3) The cells described in the account of the lymphatic glands as 

 containing a number of refractile granules or globules are also seen. 



(4) Yellow cells, — the chloragogen cells, — in various stages of de- 

 generation are found. 



In addition, numerous rod-like bacteria are present ; and also the 

 sporozoite stage in the development of Monocystis. 



THE COELOMIC ORGAN OF BEDDARD AND FEDARB. 



Beddard and Fedarb have described ("On a new Coelomic Organ 

 in an Earthworm," Proc. Zool. Sac, 1902), in specimens of Pheretima 

 posthuma sent from Calcutta by Mr. F. Finn when Deputy Superinten- 

 dent of the Indian Museum, a number of pouches or tunnels on the 

 inner surface of the body- wall. These, which were visible in the ordinary 

 dissection of the worms, were found in a number of specimens, — it is not 

 stated that they were absent in any. Their direction is transverse 

 on the lateral and ventro-lateral body- wall ; they occur on both sides, 

 from segment xxii to the hinder end of the animal, being largest from 

 about segment xl for about twenty segments onwards. Extending 

 outwards and upw^ards from near the ventral nerve cord, they present 

 the appearance of tunnels open at both ends, considerably constricted 

 in the middle of their extent ; or the two halves may be quite separate, 

 i.e., the constriction may be complete, resulting in the formation of two 

 pouches on each side, those on the same side having their mouths facing 

 in opposite directions, their narrow closed ends close together. The 

 roof of the tunnels or pouches is thin and membranous, — merely an 

 extension of the peritoneum. The structures are not equally marked 

 in all specimens ; but, as stated above, they are not said to have been 

 absent in any of the specimens examined. 



In a large number of dissections of P. posthuma I was unable to see 

 these organs, even with the binocular dissecting microscope. I also 

 prepared several series of sections for the same purpose, but the results 

 were here also negative, except in one case, in a few segments taken from 

 a little in front of the middle of the body. Here the tunnel was present, 

 as described by the authors ; while reaching to not very far from the 

 ventral nerve cord below, they terminated above a little dorsal to the 

 lateral line of the body. 



The organs are therefore not found in all specimens of the species ; 

 in some localities, as at Lahore, they appear to be of rare occurrence. 



A point not noticed by the previous authors is the modification of 

 certain cells of the roof of the tunnel. A section across the tunnel, — 

 such as is obtained in a longitudinal vertical series where it passes 

 through the lowest part of the tunnel on the ventral body-wall, — shows 

 the floor to be flat, and the roof a semicircular arch, just as in an ordinary 

 railway tunnel (fig. 4). The floor is carpeted by ordinary peritoneal 

 cells, clear and squarish ; the sides of the arching roof consists of flat- 

 tened cells joined at their edges, as in the case of the capsule of the 

 lymph glands, previously described. The vertex of the roof is peculiar ; 

 it consists of cells which are much elongated vertically, joined together 



