66 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



its height. Above its nucleus, each cell-body is of almost uni- 

 form width ; below, it tapers to its central end. The part of 

 the cell which touches the cuticula is always deeply stained and 

 enlarged. This enlargement has the appearance of a varicosity 

 and from it a number of fine strands run into the cuticula just 

 above, passing almost or quite through the inner layer of the 

 latter. At first sight these strands appear like sensory hairs 

 but a comparison of their appearance with that usually present- 

 ed by a sensory hair reveals several important points of differ- 

 ence. Each sensory hair lies in a special canal of its own 

 whose outline, in some cases at least, can be clearly distin- 

 guished. Some of the sensory hairs are always found passing 

 through to the exterior in methylene blue preparations. Some 

 are irregularly varicose and some are always stained continuous- 

 ly for their whole length ; when one is broken up into small 

 separate parts, these parts are always rounded. I have never 

 found a peripheral process from one of these anchoring cells 

 stained continuously or presenting any varicosities — each pro- 

 cess is evenly broken up into minute cylinders placed end to 

 end ; I have never found one of these processes passing through 

 the cuticula to the exterior — they all lie in the inner cuticular 

 layer ; neither have I found any trace of a special canal around 

 any of these process — each seems to be simply inclosed in and 

 almost a part of the cuticula. The appearance presented by a 

 group of these processes suggests that delicate strands have 

 grown out into the cuticula from the apex of each anchoring 

 cell and have become intimately connected with the latter and 

 that, under the influence of reagents, a decided contraction had 

 taken place. Then, because the peripheral processes were too 

 intimately connected with the inner layer of the cuticula to be- 

 come wholly withdrawn beneath the latter, some of the proto- 

 plasm in the apex of the cell, and perhaps a little from the very 

 base of the peripheral processes, became gathered into the var- 

 cosity usually found just beneath the cuticula and the processes 

 themselves became broken up into tiny cylinders. 



If the outer layer of the cuticula is shed, these protoplasmic 

 strands must either constantly grow from the apex of their cells 



