434 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



but the cerebral ganglia. In other words, the intestine is 

 bent in the opposite direction to that which it takes in the 

 Cephalopod, or has a hoeinal flexure.^ 



The ha3mal flexure of the intestine is very characteristic 

 of the Branchiocj aster opoda^ and is completed at an early 

 stage of their development. 



In such a slightly -modified Odontophoran as Chiton, the 

 heart presents its normal position in the posterior region of 

 the h£emal face of the body, and has its aortic end turned for- 

 ward. Although the branchiae are situated at the sides of 

 the body, the blood which passes through them must take a 

 backward course to reach the heart ; and thus the branchiae 

 may be said to be virtuallj' behind the heart, and the animal 

 is truly oplstliohTanchiate. It appears to be otherwise with 

 such a Gasteropod as Buccbuim, in which the gills lie actual- 

 ly in front of the heart, and the animal is therefore said to 

 be prosohranchiate. It must be recollected, however, that, 

 strictly speaking, no Odontophoran is other than opistho- 

 branchiate. The anus represents the morphological hinder 

 end of the body ; and the auricle of the heart, into which the 

 current of blood from the branchiae passes, is never, morpho- 

 logically, posterior to the branchiae. 



This is perfectly obvious in the Cephalopoda. In the 

 position which the animal frequently assumes and in which it 

 is ordinarily represented, the gills are in front of the heart. 

 But if the Mollusk is placed in its morphologically correct 

 position witli the oral face of the arms downward, it will at 

 once be seen that what is commonly called the V(mtral face 

 of the animal is the posterior half of its hnemal face, and that 

 the heart lies, morphologically, anterior to the branchifB. 



In such Branchiogasteropocis as are prosobranchiate, the 

 gills come to lie in front of tlie heart in consequence of their 

 having followed the twisted intestine forward and to the 

 haemal side of the body. 



The Pteropoda.' — In this group of small pehigic animals 

 there is no distinct head, the eyes and the ordinary tentacles 

 remaining rudimentary. Auditory sacs are attached to the 

 pedal ganglia. Sometimes {Pneumodermon) two eversible 



1 Iluxlev, " On the Morphologv of the Cephalous Mollusca." (" Phil. 

 Trans.," 1852.) 



2 See Kancf and Souleyet, " Histoire naturelle des Mollusqncs Pteropodes ; " 

 and Gegenbaur, " Untcrsuchungen iiber die Pteropoden und Ileteropoden," 

 1855. 



