DEVELOPMENT OF ACANTHODRILUS MULTIPORUS. 517 
sky’s statement that the ducts themselves are formed as out- 
growths from the funnel. 
In Acanthodrilus multiporusI have found certain points 
of agreement with these results, but also important points of 
difference. 
In the first place the genital ducts appear much 
earlier in Acanthodrilus than in Lumbricus. I have 
first met with the funnels in embryos of rather more than half 
an inch in length (stage C). They were prominently developed 
in embryos of an inch in length (still some way from being 
ready to emerge from the cocoon). In the recently hatched 
worm the funnels are ciliated, and are furnished with a con- 
siderable length of duct. Fig. 1 represents two funnels, those 
of the 10th and 11th segments, in an embryo of stage D. In 
this stage I should observe that the funnels correspond- 
ing to the four gonads are equally well developed, 
and it would be impossible to predict that that of the 12th 
segment was destined to atrophy subsequently. I could, 
furthermore, detect no difference between the ovi- 
ducal and spermiducal funnels, such as Bergh mentions 
and illustrates. The funnels show no signs of ciliation, but 
are somewhat folded. The gonad, as already mentioned, is in 
contact with its funnel, and there is a large blood-vessel to the 
upper side ; the cells of the funnel could be easily distinguished 
from those of the neighbouring regions by the large size of 
their closely crowded nuclei. The septum was greatly 
thickened in the neighbourhood of the funnel, but thin just 
below the funnel itself; at this point it is traversed by a solid 
cord of cells with large nuclei, surrounded by peritoneal cells 
with smaller nuclei. The continuity of this rod with 
the funnel was quite plain; it is the commence- 
ment of sperm-duct or oviduct, as the case may be. 
This rod passes obliquely and without any flexure to the body- 
wall; there it is continuous with a coiled tube in 
which a lumen could bein parts detected; the whole 
structure, in fact, bears an unmistakable resem- 
blance to a nephridial tubule. In the figure referred to 
