
MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY OF LINGUATULA TENIOIDES. 327 
dorsi carina, quam versus caude apicem conspicua e poris forsan oritura; ab his sal- 
tem, uti supra monui, striez quedam decedunt, sed hec extricare mihi nondum con- 
cessum est.” From this description an idea is conveyed that the ova are formed, as in 
the Nematoidea, in the same tube by which they are ultimately conveyed out of the 
body ; but there exists in Linguatula a distinct ovary in addition to the oviduct, the 
convolutions of which are formed by a single tube, and not, as in the Ascarides, by two 
distinct oviducts: the following is the result of my dissection of the generative system 
of the Linguatula. 
At the distance of a line posterior to the mouth, on the ventral aspect of the body, 
the narrow extremities of two elongated pyriform vesicles adhere firmly to the integu- 
ment, the remainder of the vesicle hanging freely in the abdominal cavity on either side 
of the commencement of the alimentary canal. These vesicles are 3 lines in length, and 
more than half a line in diameter ; they are composed of a tough white semitransparent 
membrane, and contain a white pulpy secretion ; they communicate with the commence- 
ment of the oviduct, and might be considered as an anterior bifurcated prolongation of 
that tube, but that their dilated form, their mode of communication by means of narrow 
ducts, and the nature of their contents, proclaim them to be distinct organs, and ana- 
logous to the impregnating glands of the hermaphrodite Rotifera, &c. One of these 
vesicles was distended with its secretion, the other had parted with its contents, which 
had passed into the commencement of the ovarian tube, and were blended with the 
darker-coloured ova. 
The ovary is a thin narrow minutely granulated body, continued along and adhering 
to the mesial line of the dorsal parietes of the body for the extent of the two anterior 
thirds. It terminates about half an inch from the anterior extremity, where it gives off 
two slender capillary tubes, which pass on each side of the alimentary canal, over the 
lateral nerves and the male organs, and converging immediately anterior to the ducts 
of the latter, unite below the origins of the lateral nerves, and enter the commence- 
ment of the oviduct. 
This tube is very narrow after its commencement, which is formed by the junction 
of the two preceding ducts and those of the seminal vesicles: it passes for the space of 
an inch straight down the body, at first ventrad, then dextrad, and afterwards dorsad of 
the alimentary canal: it then makes a sudden bend upwards, and soon begins to twine 
around the intestine, ascending to within a few lines of its commencement ; there the 
coils alter their course, and descend, winding round the intestine in the interspaces of 
the former coils. At about the middle of the body the gyrations are extremely numerous 
and complex, quite concealing the alimentary canal, which, however, is easily distin- 
guished on separating the coils, on account of its white colour, which contrasts with 
the ferruginous tint of the oviduct. Towards the lower third of the body the coils of 
the oviduct become fewer and more distant from each other ; and here the brown ova 
are seen in scattered masses ; at length the duct runs parallel with the intestine straight 
to the anus, terminating close to the intestine at the posterior end of the body. It is 
widest at the commencement of the coils, where the contents gradually assume the fer- 
2x2 
