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the stomach from the rest of that organ.1 A constriction of 
the walls of the stomach takes place at a definite point, and 
this increases until the lowest section, which assumes a 
somewhat globular form, is connected with it by a narrow 
channel only, and hangs suspended beneath it like a distinct 
organ. This semi-detached portion continues to share in 
the contractile movements of the stomach, and the food is 
driven down into it through the channel that I have just 
mentioned, In this state it was noticed by J. V. Thompson 
in the following passage, which is quoted by Smitt :—“ From 
the stomach the viscus appears to descend considerably 
lower, and from its acquiring a spherical shape, opaque yel- 
lowish colour, and its persisting after the death of the animals 
in many of these zoophytes, is most probably an ovum or 
ovarium.” The stomach now appears to consist of two con- 
nected chambers, of which the lower and smaller is globular 
in form. I have never witnessed the actual separation of 
this portion from the rest; but at length, whether before or 
after the death of the polypide I cannot say, it is cast off, 
and lies within the cells as a separate structure, the “ germ- 
capsule ” of Smitt, “the dark body” of earlier observers. 
This course of development seems to be constant, and the 
history, as I have now given it, would certainly lead us to 
suppose that the “ groddkapsel ” has some further and pro- 
bably important furiction to discharge for the Polyzoan colony. 
Thus definitely formed, and holding so constant a place in 
the life history, it certainly cannot be correctly viewed “as 
the mere remains of a decaying polypide.” 
It may be remarked in passing, that these observations 
completely exclude Claparéde’s conjecture, that the ‘ dark 
bodies” are a product of the endocyst. Relying on the 
evidence now adduced, I hold that Smitt’s view of the 
“‘ cyoddkapsel” is substantially correct, and that it is rightly 
regarded as one of the reproductive bodies of the Polyzoan 
colony. 
' Vide a paper by the author in the ‘ Popular Science Review ’ for January, 
1870, entitled “On some Interesting Points in the History of the Polyzoa.” 
