34 LAWSON, ON LIMAX MAXIMUS. 
the penis, yet in Limax the one is so completely the prolonga- 
tion of the other, that, it is impossible to indicate either the 
commencement of penis or the termination of vas deferens ; 
hence this tube may be looked on as the penis. It is of a 
transparently white colour, a little wider in front than be- 
hind, and takes its course from the testicle posteriorly, to the 
generative outlet, in the followimg manner. It first curves 
outwards and to the left, and then, turning in the opposite 
direction, approaches the right side of the body, passing over 
the uterus and beneath the rectum; here, placed in the right 
lateral region, and covered by the membrane of the lung, it 
travels anteriorly as far as the cloaca, when, bending at an 
acute angle, again below the rectum, it insinuates itself be- 
tween the ovary and duct of the spermatheca, posterior to 
the latter, and, finally, after lying beneath the aorta and 
above the egg-sac, it opens by a rounded aperture into the 
cloaca. The androgynous division involves the sperm- 
sac and its duct. The former is a spherical expansion of the 
latter, with an exceedingly thin, transparent, easily ruptured 
coat, upon the outer surface of which several arterial twigs 
ramify, producing, by the contrast between their white 
branches and the transparent groundwork, a very beautiful 
appearance. I cannot think how Treviranus* could have 
supposed that this vesicle was a urimary organ, for it has 
not the slightest connection with the so-called kidney, and, 
on the other hand, is decidedly attached to the generative 
outlet by its duct. It is situate on the left of the uterus, by 
whose anterior fold it is embraced, has the gullet below it, 
and is covered by the right anterior lobe of the liver. In the 
unimpregnated animal it is empty, wrinkled, and triangular 
shaped, with a length of =2, and a breadth of + an inch; 
but subsequent to coition it is distended with semen (which, 
contrary to the assertion of Von Siebold, is not at this period 
fully developed), assumes the globular form, and has a 
diameter a little over 2 inch. Its microscopic structure 
is that of connective tissue, simulating here and there a fibril- 
lated constitution, which disappears under the influence of 
caustic potash, and having a few of the nucleated endoplasts 
of non-striated muscle. It empties its contents into the 
cloaca, through the duct of the spermatheca. This is a strong 
and short canal, uniting the sac and outlet. Starting from 
the former, it travels to the right beneath the aorta and 
uterus, and, curving across the penis, with the egg-sac to its 
left, it communicates with the cloaca by a circular open- 
ing, just beside the penis and at its dextral border. It is 
* «Zeitschrift fiir Physiologie,’ i. 
