36 



into the stomach and also into the intestine. Like the 

 intestine, the inner wall of the caecum is not covered by 

 any chitinous lining. It acts as a reservoir simply for the 

 hepato-pancreatic secretion, and no food of any kind was 

 recognised therein. 



The Intestine. Leaving the stomach, this long, 

 ih in-walled, and slender organ, after running between 

 the two hepatic ducts, before their fusion, curves ventral ly 

 upwards over the liver, over the ventral surface of which 

 it runs, curving first to the right, then in again to the 

 left, and then anteriorly to the anus. Just before it 

 reaches the anus, the ink duct enters the rectum by an 

 aperture at the tip of a small papilla on its dorsal wall. 

 The anus has a dorsal and a ventral lip, and bears two 

 small leaf-shaped appendages or '* ears " laterally (PI. IV, 

 fig. 29). The internal wall of the intestine is ridged, the 

 two most prominent ridges being continued tip from the 

 columellar ridge of the spiral caecum. In the initial 

 part of the intestine, the food which lias been in great 

 part digested in the stomach is mixed with that portion 

 of the hepato-pancreatic fluid which enters this organ. 

 Hence digestion is completed here. The chief process, 

 however, occurring in the intestine is absorption of the 

 now digested food. Towards the rectal end of the 

 intestine, waste matter of a dull orange tinge collects. 



Digestive Gland.— This large oval gland, although 

 often called the liver, does not secrete a fluid at all 

 comparable to the bile secreted by the liver of vertebrates. 

 It occupies almost the whole of the visceral sac, and lies 

 ventral to the crop and oesophagus. Although in Eledone ii 

 consists of one lobe only, the paired ducts and the analogy 

 with the Decapods indicate a fusion of two originally 

 distinct glands, which were situated laterally to the gut. 

 The ink sac lies in a deep groove excavated on the ventral 



