232 DENTALIAD A. 
At the base of the cesophagus is a cerebral mass of four 
minute, pale pink, subcircular, finely-punctured ganglions, in 
form somewhat like the letter X, united by a nervous thread 
or collar, which encircles the cesophagus at the pomt where 
it passes at the base of the foot into the stomach, and the 
fine filaments therefrom are distinctly visible passing to the 
stomach and throwing off anastomosing lateral threads ante- 
riorly to the foot, buccal orifice, and the other front parts of 
the body. 
The salivary glands are very large, covering the base of the 
foot and the cesophageal ganglions, and envelope the buccal 
pouches so completely that they seem imbedded in them ; 
they spring from each side the base of the mouth, and are two 
thick fasciculi, which consist of a multitude of very fine, long, 
light yellow capillary strands ; their extraordinary volume is 
necessary to produce a copious supply of fluid to lubricate the 
enormous quantity of Foraminifera these animals swallow, 
especially of the scabrous ones, as Bulimina pulchella, and the 
sharp-pomted Lagena amphora. 
The cesophagus, after emerging from the nervous collar, 
instantly enters the stomachal cavity, which is composed of a 
muscular membrane of a broad oval form, the anterior and 
larger portion thereof bemg occupied by an extremely strong 
gizzard, formed of a pair of subelliptical folding jaws with 
eighteen laminz bent towards the pomts on each side, and 
studded with very strong blunt teeth: this denticular frame is 
supported by fleshy lobes encased in corneous plates, and 
appears to be an organ nearly similar to the buccal mass of 
the ordinary Gasteropoda; it is not however placed, as in 
them, immediately at the anterior orifice of a pharyngeal 
cesophagus leading to a stomach and fixed thereto by strong 
elastic threads, but it is the stomach itself most slightly 
attached to the membrane which envelopes it. This powerful 
machine undoubtedly acts as a gizzard, to grind the testaceous 
food of this animal; it empties itself by a very short scoop- 
shaped canal imto an intestme of three or four intricate 
Gordian knot-like folds, which, strange to say, often contain 
a dozen or more shells that have escaped the action of the 
