of the Mule-criclcet. il" 



are partially coiled round the contiguous viscera so as not to 

 be very easily disentangled. A similar organ is lejiresented 

 in Sir Everard Home's Comparative Anatomy, vol. i. pi. S^, 

 as belonging to the Cape grasshopper : it was originally consi- 

 dered by Mr. Hunter, and is considei'ed generally at present, 

 as answering to the liver of the higher classes of animals. 



Each of these tubes springs out of a common cavity in 

 which the white tube from the intestine terminates; but at 

 their free extremity they are all impervious. Each tube ap- 

 pears partially filled with a granular pulpy substance which 

 is almost universally of a bright yellow colour, though some- 

 times a particle is visible here and there of a clear light green 

 colour; and I have seen similar green particles in the duct 

 leading from the intestines. 



The following peculiarity is observable in the individual 

 structure of these tubes : their diameter for about one third 

 of their course from the closed extremitj* is verj^ small, and 

 they are colourless and apparently empty ; after which they 

 suddenly undergo a considerable enlargement, become \e\- 

 low, and are partially filled with the contents above de- 

 scribed. 



Maceration in water destroys the yellow colour in the course 

 of a few minutes ; from whence it may be inferred that alter 

 death the colouring matter transudes through the tubes con- 

 taining it, — a circumstance observable also with respect to the 

 biliary vessels of the higher orders of animal?; but it seems 

 certain that no such transudation takes place during the life 

 of the animal ; for, upon examination of the insect soon after 

 death, I have never found the adjacent jiarts coloured, as they 

 would have been by the escape of the contents of the tubes. 



The portion of the intestine below the orifice of the hepatic 

 duct, as it may be called, appears to be externally traversed 

 in a longitudinal direction by several rows of small convex 

 eminences resem'.^ling beads ; these are the outer suriaces of 

 so many corresponding internal sinuses, which are jirobably 

 formed as the similar sinuses in the large intestines of man, 

 and many other animals, by a peculiarity in the disjjositioa of 

 tlie fibres of the muscular coat. 



Near the termination of the intestine are two orifices, one 

 on each side, communicating each with a duct which soon 

 swells out into a vesicular bag : these l)ags may probably be 

 glands that secrete the fetid matter which the insect ejects 

 irom the anus when irritated. In one instance I found, on 

 the site of llie orifices above mentioned, two small bodies about 

 the size of a pin's head, of a dark colour, and to the naked 

 eye of a spherical form : my surprise was conwderable when, 



Vol. GG. No. :5.'52. Da. 182.5. .'5 Cr ujion 



