166 BRODE. (Vou. XIV. 
He mentions! having found, in Lumbriculus, Rhynchelmis, 
and Claparedilla, “cup-shaped organs” in the epidermis situ- 
ated on the ganglion cell cord and in the region of the break in 
the longitudinal muscle layer. They agree in position with the 
lateral organs described by Eisig in the capitellids. These 
organs are in the epidermis, have cilia, are arranged one pair 
in each segment, and are retractile. I donot understand from 
his work that they are in the ganglion cell cord, but that they 
are in the epidermis above it. 
In his monograph Eisig “affirms his former statement regard- 
ing the problematic character of Semper’s “lateral line,” and 
cites Vejdovsky’s statement that it is a sympathetic nerve. He 
thinks that the “‘ cup-shaped organs”’ described by Vejdovsky if 
more fully investigated may be found to be homologous to 
those described by him in Capitellidae. 
An entirely different view is held by Hesse,? whose investi- 
gations have led him to decide that the two lateral lines are 
composed of the nucleated plasma parts of the circular muscles 
which are collected into these two lines. His early observa- 
tions were made on Nais and Fredericia. In a later work* he 
extends his observations to Chaetogaster, Stylaria, Tubifex, 
Limnodrilus, and Lumbriculus, and thinks that this peculiarity 
is common to all Oligochaetes. 
In the excellent monograph of the Oligochaetes recently 
issued by Beddard,°* this structure is referred to as the lateral 
nerve or ganglionic chain, and Vejdovsky’s interpretation, that 
it may be compared to the sympathetic system of higher forms, 
seems to be preferred. However, Hesse’s view is stated, without 
comment, in a footnote. 
Summing up briefly these observations, we conclude as 
follows regarding this structure: 
1 F. Vejdovsky, /.c., p. 98. 
2 H. Eisig, Monographie der Capitelliden des Golfes von Neapel, etc., Fauna wu. 
Flora d. Golfes von Neapel, 1887, p. 510. 
3 R. Hesse, Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Baues der Enchytraeiden, Zeit. f. wiss. 
Zool., Bd. LVII, 1893, p. 6. 
4 R. Hesse, Zur vergleichenden Anatomie der Oligochaeten, Zezt. f. wiss. Zool., 
Bd. LVIII, 1894, pp. 396, 397, 401, 402. 
5 F. E. Beddard, Monograph of the Oligochaeta, Oxford, 1895, pp. 20, 21. 
