4 Dr. 11. Grceff on the Annelid Genus Sphaerodoriim, 



that all these appendages, as ali'early stated, are glands; for the 

 cmi of the Annelids in general are not to be regarded merely 

 as organs of touch or motion, but may apparently be subser- 

 vient to very various,purposes*. 



If we now examine these globular cutaneous appendages 

 more closely, we observe, even with a low power, that their 

 cavities are occupied by a coil of tortuous vermiform bodies, which 

 (Erstedf has already detected and described in the dorsal cirri 

 of Spharodorum, and with regard to which he proposes the 

 question whether they may not be ovaries. These peculiar 

 structures seem to have entirely escaped Johnston J, which I can 

 only explain by supposing that he did not examine them in a 

 fresh state ; for if the animals under examination be dead, or 

 if they have been exposed for some time to pressure for the 

 purpose of observation, nothing remains of the original appear- 

 ance, in consequence of the breaking up of the vermiform bodies. 

 Johnston regards the globular appendages in Spharodurnm 

 {PoUicita peripatus) as branchiae. To Ch'.parede belongs the 

 merit of having first more accurately grasped the morpholo- 

 gical nature, although he could not arrive at any definite 

 opinion as to the physiological signification of these organs. He 

 thought that he could see an orifice § in the papilliform process 

 which occurs on the upper part of the globular dorsal cirri in 

 Sp/iarodoriun, but not in our animals, but found that the cap- 

 sule was closed in other respects ; in this, however, as Kolliker 

 Las proved, he was in error. 



Kolliker|| first placed their histological and by that means also 

 their physiological character in the proper light, when he found 

 that the papilliform process in Spharodorum is not perforated, 

 but that each of the vermiform bodies situated in the interior 

 of the capsule opens externally by an orifice of its own. He 

 regards the individual bodies as tubular (/lands, which " appa- 

 rently consist entirely of rounded-angular, dark, cell-like struc- 

 tures.'^ 



As regards my own observations, I have but little to add to 

 Kblliker's statements in relation to the structure of these organs. 

 The mammilliform process occurring upon the capsules in Sp/ice- 

 rodorum is entirely wanting in our animals ; so that I can ex- 

 press no opinion as to the perforation which Claperede describes, 

 but, according to Kolliker, has no existence ; I can, however, 

 completely confirm Kolliker's results, according to which each of 



* See Ehler's ' Die Borstenwiirmer,' p . 22. 



t " Zur Classification der Annulaten," AYieguiaun's Arcliiv, 1844, p. 108. 



X ' Annals,' vol. xvi. p. 5, pi. 2. 



§ Beobacht. iiber Anat. der wirbell. Thiere, p. 21, taf. 11. figs. 12, 13. 



II Wiirzb, naturw. Zeitschrift, 18G4, p. 240, taf. G. fig. 1. 



