ANATOMY OF THE EARTHWORM. 13 
light on the homologies of its reproductive organs. ‘They are 
attached, one on either side of the nervous chord, to the walls 
of the body, in the fourteenth segment, having each an 
orifice, in close proximity’ to the pores of the sete of the 
inner series. At their insertion they are fine, delicate tubes, 
but gradually expand, and terminate in very widely opened 
ciliated receptacles, attached to the diaphragm-muscle, sepa- 
rating the thirteenth from the fourteenth segment, in which 
there is an orifice on either side formed by these ducts (fig. 1, 
Pl. 1, fig. 2, Pl. II). They frequently contain ova in an 
advancing state of development. In the structure of these 
smaller ducts, about 1th of an inch in length, we are again re- 
minded of the ciliated segment organs, a pair of which, how- 
ever, with all their normal attributes, exist in the 18th and 
14th rings of the body, as in all others. The ova from the 
ovary drop into the oviduct without any direct communica- 
tion between the two, the ciliary movements being sufficient 
to impel the ova, as also the ciliary movements of the ciliated 
inductors of the spermatic ducts are sufficient to urge the 
spermatozoa from the sac formed by the extension of the 
fibrous sheath of the testicle. 
Spermatic Reservoirs or Spermathece.—Situated on either 
side in the line of the exterior setigerous glands, in the 10th and 
also the 11th ring, is a pair of small globular sacs, having a 
somewhat dense though very vascular wall, and a pedunculated 
base, the peduncle being a hollow canal communicating with the 
exterior by very obvious apertures, between the 9th and 10th, 
and 10th and 11th rmgs. The contents of the sacs are fully 
developed spermatozoa, and their function is to retain the 
seminal fluid received in copulation, and to emit it again, upon 
the ova when those bodies are deposited in the egg-capsule 
(Pl. If fig. 18, Pl. IG fig. 1). In colour they are much 
brighter and whiter than the testes, which are discoloured by 
the numerous impurities they contain. Dr. Williams ignores 
also the existence of these organs, which have been known 
for many years, and were fully described by both D’Udekem 
and Hering.* 
Haternal Organs.—UHaving thus reviewed the essential 
organs of reproduction, the ovary and testis, and their ducts, 
* The accuracy of D’Udekem’s and Hering’s observations is confirmed 
by Mr. Busk, who, M. Claparéde states, informed him, as he also has told 
me, that he had independeutly ascertained the same facts as they had. <A 
very interesting and valuable criticism of the papers of MM. D’Udekem, 
Hering, Carter, and Williams, is to be found in one of the chapters of M. 
Claparéde’s ‘ Recherches sur les Annelides, Turbellaries, &c.’ Geneva, 1861. 
