236 Records of the Indian Museum. | Vor. Vin 
diverticulum from the middle region of the atrium, closely bound 
up with the atrium for some distance near its origin, then sepa- 
rating from it though still running parallel; it extends back 
through the whole extent of segment xii, has an insignificant 
lumen, and is, like the proximal portion of the atrium, covered 
with a thick layer of glandular cells. A special ovoid coelomic 
sac encloses the distal section of the atrium and so much of its 
middle section and of the paratrium as are bound up together. 
The spermathecae consist of a duct with an expanded spherical 
ampulla. 
Beddard on the other hand shows the vas deferens as joining 
the atrium about the middle of the length of the latter. The 
internal half of the atrium has thus the appearance of being a 
diverticulum of the male efferent canal; it is a large ovoid sac, 
with a considerable lumen and a voluminous investment of gland 
cells of peritoneal origin. The distal half of the atrium, below the 
junction of the vas deferens, is tubular, and is surrounded 
by a considerable muscular investment. The spermathecae are 
pear-shaped. 
The differences briefly indicated above might possibly be 
explained, according to Michaelsen, in one or more of three ways. 
First, Beddard’s specimen might not have been fully mature; but 
this explanation is in any case not by itself sufficient, and more- 
over the clitellum was well developed in Beddard’s specimen, and 
the spermathecae contained spermatozoa. Or Beddard may have 
been misled, owing to the scantiness of his material, and the 
difficulty of working out a complete description from one specimen 
only ; in this case it may have happened that Beddard has 
overlooked the paratrium, and mistaken the relation of vas defer- 
ens to atrium. Lastly, the specimens of the two observers may 
have belonged to different species ; this however Michaelsen thinks 
very unlikely, since if the above differences do actually exist they 
are not of specific but of generic importance. 
The sexual specimen from Calcutta, mentioned above, was 
pretty certainly not fully mature ; in the sections, ripe spermatozoa 
are indeed seen entering the seminal funnel, and the sperm sac 
extends as far backwards as segment xiv; but the clitellum is 
indistinguishable, the spermathecae contain no spermatozoa, and 
there is no ovisac with contained ova. Butin the circumstances 
above mentioned, the examination of other sexual specimens of 
this worm is a matter of some interest and importance ; and the 
present specimen has probably this advantage, that it wiil at least 
indicate whether the differences in the two already published ac- 
counts are or are not due to the first of Michaelsen’s suppositions, 
—1i.e. to Beddard’s having worked on an immature specimen. 
Briefly, the Calcutta specimen agrees with Michaelsen’s 
description in all essential points ; and a full account would therefore 
be quite superfluous. It will only be necessary to refer to the 
figures appended, and to mention the characters in which the 
present specimen differs from Michaelsen’s account. 
