SEXUAL ACTIVITIES OF THE SQUID 399 
FORMATION 
At first thought it is very difficult to understand how so com- 
plicated a structure as a spermatophore, with its numerous 
coats and structures, can be formed as a secretion inside the 
lumen of a glandular duct. To make the process clear it is 
necessary to know the structure of the duct in some detail. 
The parts of the duct have received different names by dif- 
ferent writers, and, inasmuch as the functions of the parts were 
not well Minced at the time, the names that have been 
applied to them are generally not significant and should, I think, 
be abandoned as misleading. 
A recent writer (Marchand, ’07), who has covered this sub- 
ject much more fully than has previously been done and who 
has made careful comparisons of the male ducts of a large number 
of Cephalopods, had analyzed the names previously given and 
made selections that suit his purpose, but as these names are 
applied without definite knowledge of the functions of the parts 
receiving the names and as more than one function is performed 
by a part to which he gives a single name, following the names 
he gives would seem to lead to even more confusion than to 
again change them. 
The male genital organs of the squid are asymmetrical, only 
the testis and duct on the left side being present. The testis 
lies far posteriorly and dorsally (the terms posterior, anterior, 
dorsal, and ventral are used in the apparent rather than the 
true morphological sense). Just beyond the testis capsule the — 
vas deferens shows a slight swelling, the ampulla of the vas 
deferens. From this point the vas deferens, at first a wavy 
and then a closely plaited tube, extends around the left side 
of the visceral mass to a point just posterior to the left branchial 
heart. Here the sexual duct enlarges to form a complicated, 
folded gland in which the spermatophores are formed. 
The whole mass is frequently referred to as the spermatophoric 
gland. This is proper in the sense that the spermatophores 
are formed here, and it is not proper, inasmuch as it is not a 
single gland, but a series of glands and mechanical contrivances, 
