732 EDWIN S. GOODRICH. 



tinuity with the coelomic epithelium, and in open communi- 

 cation with the coelom (10). 



The connection between the nephridium and the 

 genital funnel: — From the brief review of the facts given 

 on page 725, it will be gathered that the combination of the 

 genital funnel with the nephridium is of three different 

 kinds. 



According to the first mode of union, the funnel fuses with 

 and opens into the canal of the closed nephridium : in 

 Phyllodocidse and Glyceridee. 



According to the second mode, the funnel, whilst preserv- 

 ing its original opening to the exterior, may be connected 

 by the edge of its lip with the nephrostome : in some Capi- 

 tellidse. 



Finally, in the Hesionidse, the funnel, losing its external 

 pore, surrounds and opens into the extremity of the nephri- 

 dium. 



It may now be asked, what is the nature of this connection ? 

 How far is it really similar in the three types, and is it likely 

 to have happened independently in these three cases ? 



So far as one can judge from the facts now known, and 

 without a knowledge of the development, it seems probable 

 that the first mode of union (in the Phyllodocids and Gly- 

 cerids) was bi'ought about by the gradual approximation of 

 the originally distinct openings of the funnel and nephridium, 

 until the two organs opened together, and that the opening 

 of the genital funnel shifted farther and farther up the 

 nephridial canal, until it acquired its present position.^ 



In the case of the Capitellidfe, the connection between the 

 two organs is, after all, not very close. It consists in a 



1 Of the mere shifting of the pores of both the nephridia and the 

 genital funnels, we have ample evidence in the Annelids ; and that the peri- 

 toneal funnels have a peculiar tendency to fuse with adjacent tubes is shown 

 in the case of the sperm-ducts of Oligochaetes and Leeches, and of the pro- 

 nephric funnels of Vertebrates. Long ago, Nussbaum ('Arch. mikr. Anat.,' 

 vol. xxvii, 1886, p. 466) showed that the mesonephric funnels fused with and 

 opened into the blood-vessels of Amphibia. 



