418 EDWIN S. GOODRIOH. 



ducts were merely moclified nephridia : " Nous croyons que 

 le Saccocirrns est jusqu'ici le premier exemple, parmi les 

 Annelides Polyclietes, de vers dans lequels les organes 

 segmentaires du male se transforment et devienneut de 

 veritables appareils de copulation/' 



In the female they described nephridia, as in the male, 

 which they believed to open to the exterior near the para- 

 podium, and to function as oviducts in the genital region, 

 Bobretzky having seen the nephridial canal dilated with 

 eggs in ripe specimens. Besides these, a pair of sperma- 

 thec[B were found in every genital segment opening ventrally 

 by a narrow duct, with cilia producing a current inwai'ds. 

 To explain how fertilisation takes place, Marion and 

 Bobretzky added that " il faut supposer que ces vesicules 

 [sperm athecaB] s'ouvrent dans la grande chambre o\x les 

 ovules s'accumulent." 



Now when this investigation was begun I hoped to find 

 this internal opening, and to interpret the excretory organs 

 of the female as true nephridia, and the spermathecae as 

 coelomostomes (5). But such an opening does not appear to 

 exist. The spermatheca consists of a pear-shaped sac, with 

 a long duct passing straight through the ventro-lateral 

 longitudinal muscles (figs. 14 and 21) to open to the 

 exterior. The wall of the duct is formed of ordinary ciliated 

 epithelium (figs. 3 and 13) ; but the cilia do not reach far 

 into the sac, where the epithelium soon becomes altered in 

 character. Near the base of the sac, sun-ounding the 

 entrance of the duct, is a cup-shaped region where the lining 

 is formed of very large granular cells containing yellow 

 granules, and at their inner ends large irregular angular 

 bodies of yellow refringent matter (figs. 3, 4, and 13). Similar 

 bodies are distributed in the epithelium lining the swollen 

 end of the sac, and together with the granules give the 

 spermatheca its yellow tinge. What the function of these 

 bodies can be it is difficult to guess; possibly they serve as a 

 reserve of food material for the spermatozoa. There is no 

 reason to consider them as of an excretory nature. 



