68 PROKESSOR LANKE3TER. 



The R^ED Vascular Fluid of ^/?e Earthworm a Corpusculated 

 Fluid. By E. Ray Lankester, M.A., F.II.S. 



In describing the anatomy of the Earthworm in the sixth 

 volume of this Journal some years since, I made the statement, 

 which was in agreement with the current opinion, that the red 

 vascular fluid of that animal is free from corpuscles. This state- 

 ment, like several others contained in the same essay, is erroneous. 

 I am happy in this case to be able myself to furnish a more cor- 

 rect account of a feature in the organisation of the Earthworm 

 which, however small and insignificant in point of fact, has yet 

 been the subject of much discussion and speculation. 



Our positive knowledge of the significance of the red vascular fluid 

 of Chsetopodous worms was materially advanced by Nawrocki's 

 demonstration in 1867, that the colouring matter of this fluid in 

 the Earthworm is haemoglobin — a discovery which I indepen- 

 dently confirmed and extended by spectroscopic observation of 

 other Chsetopoda (' Journal of Anatomy/ 18G7, p. 114«; ibid., 

 1869, p. 119, and ' Proe. Roy. Society,' 1873, No. MO.) The 

 fact, however, that abundant corpuscles are present in this same 

 fluid in the case of the Earthworm (and as a])pears very probable 

 in all similar fluids) has hitherto escaped detection, owing to the 

 difficulties of observation which small corpuscles floating in a 

 deeply coloured liquid present, and also to the fact that the method 

 by which they may be rendered apparent has not been applied 

 to them by the various observers who have occupied themselves 

 with this matter. 



The gifted and laborious investigator of the anatomy of 

 the Chsetopoda, Edouard Claparcde, so far anticipated the obser- 

 vation which I have made in the case of Lumbricus, as to 

 discover in the red vascular system of Cirrhatulus, Ophelia, 

 and Staurocephalus (identical in its general anatomical features 

 with that of Lumbricus), floating histological elements or cor- 

 puscles. He says in his introduction to ' Les Annelides Cheto- 

 podes du Golfe de Naples,' p. 19, "L'existence de corpuscles 

 (lu sang dans les vaisseaux de certaines Annelides est ajcurdliui 

 indubitable. M. de Quatrefages, dans son Hisloire des 

 Amteh's, en admet trois exemples; les Glyceres, les Phoronis, 

 et les Syllidies. Ce dernier seul a de la valeur. En efl'et chez 

 les Glyceres, les corpuscles rouges aj)partiennent ;.u liquide de 

 la cavite periviscerale, et quant aux Phoronis, elles ne pourront 

 guere conserver leur j)lace parmi les Annelides. Mais, sans par- 

 Icr d'une ancienne observation de Rud. AVagner relative a une 

 Terebelle, observation d'ailleurs confirmee par M. Kollikcr, on 



