STUDIES ON EARTHWORMS. 99 



merely a mass of granular, oily-looking granules. But by 

 means of sections I was able to identify these sacs as s per ma- 

 th ecse. The spermatozoa were now seen in bundles, chiefly 

 in the neck of the sack, while in the sack itself they were less 

 numerous, and mixed with the granular globules. The wall of 

 the spermatheca is muscular, and the cavity is lined by tall 

 columnar epithelial cells. 



The nephridia are represented in each somite by numerous 

 vascular tufts on the body wall ; more numerous in the genital 

 somites than elsewhere. These are apparently independent of 

 one another, and consist of a slightly-coiled tubule containing a 

 narrow, intracellular lumen. Surrounding each tuft is a net- 

 work of capillaries (fig. 38) without dilatations. As for their 

 communication, either internally or externally, I am unable to 

 say anything. Though I cut sections through the body wall I 

 could not trace the nephridia through it, owing to the badly 

 preserved condition of the worm, nor could I make out any 

 detail of their structure. 



I have already described the glandular structures in the 

 anterior somites, which I take to be modified nephridia. 



As for the fact of there being a large number of small 

 nephridia in each somite, several Earthworms are now known 

 to possess more than two nephridia to each somite. Beddard 

 has described Ac. multiporus with eight, and I have sections 

 through a Perichaeta in which there are very numerous, small 

 nephridia in each somite — a condition also found by Beddard 

 in this genus, who has seen their external pores. 



Kinberg^s Genera. 



In my previous paper I gave the characters of eleven 

 Earthworms, as described, though very inadequately, and, 

 as it now appears, wrongly, by Kinberg^ in 1866. In the 

 April number of the * Comptes Rendus'^ for the present 

 year M. E. Perrier, in a short note, corrects some of Kin- 

 berg's descriptions, as observed by himself after examination 



1 ' Ofversigt af. Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Forhandlgr,' Stockholm, xxiii. 

 Comptes rendus,' cii, 1886, p. 875. 



2 f 



