ANATOMY OF THE EARTHWORM. 259 
recorded by Dr. Hering and M. d’Udekem, asserts that those 
authors’ observations are “ confused and contradictory,” and 
proceeds to give a description of ovaries and testes, which 
he does not confirm by adequate figures, and which, cer- 
tainly as far as my observations have gone, do not exist. It 
is therefore necessary, in justice to these two continental 
observers, to show, if possible, that their observations are not 
“confused and contradictory,” but that they (more espe- 
cially Dr. Hering) have given, on the whole, a truthful and 
accurate account of the reproductive organs of Lumbricus ; 
that it is Dr. Williams’s observations which are incorrect, and 
that consequently that author’s views as to the modification 
of the ciliated tubuli into reproductive organs are, at any 
rate, as far as Lumbricus is concerned, untenable. 
The frequent use of the microscope, which is necessary in 
the elucidation of the anatomy of the Annelida, and without 
which no accurate knowledge of their organization can 
be arrived at, must be my apology for the publication of 
a paper of this nature in the pages of a microscopical 
journal. 
From the time of Willis* and Redit the structure and 
habits of the earthworm have received much attention from 
naturalists. Montegre,{ SirEverard Home,§ Dufour, || Dugés,{] 
Meckel,** Stein,t+ D’ Udekem,{t{ and Hering,§$$ are amongst 
those who have written on the subject, the only author, how- 
ever, who professes to deal with it as a whole, and who has 
treated of the entire anatomy of the worm, is Morren,|||| the 
other writers named having devoted their researches almost 
exclusively to the reproductive organs. The work of this author 
was published many years since, but is still remarkable 
for the amount of labour displayed in it, and the profusion 
of engravings. The nervous system has formed the subject 
of papers by M. de Quatrefages and Mr. Lockhart Clarke, 
to which reference will be made hereafter. I propose to 
describe the organization of the earthworm under the following 
heads :—Tegumentary system, Muscular system, Digestive 
* ‘De Anima Brutorum.’ 
‘De animalibus vivis que in corporibus animalium vivorum pariuntur.’ 
i ‘Annales du Museum d’Hist. Nat.,’ 1825. 
§ ‘Phil. Trans.,’ 18238, p. J1. 
| «Ann. des Sciences Nat.,’ 1825. 
q| Ibid. 1828. 
** Miiller’s ‘ Archiv,’ 1844. 
+} Ibid., 1842. 
« ££ ‘Memoires de Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles,’ 1857. 
- §§ Siebold and Kolliker, ‘ Zeitschrift,’ 1858. 
_ |||] ‘De Lumbrici terrestris Historia naturali necnon anatomia tractatus.’ 
