Miscellaneous. 369 



Among the corpuscles of the general cavity of the body we find 

 that two principal types predominate, which I propose to call nutri- 

 tive or i>k(stic corjjusdes and formative corpuscles. The blood-cor- 

 puscles only present a slight modification of the former. 



Certain facts lead us to think that the plastic corpuscles originate 

 from the cells of the alimentary canal. In pathological cases, 

 when an organ or one of its parts has been destroyed its restoration 

 is eflTeeted by means of the plastic corpuscles. 



The formative corpuscles may, in some cases, reconstruct or re- 

 place the terminations of the nerves. 



The corpuscles which give origin to the buds differ by their very 

 rapid motion and by the presence in their interior of small particles 

 of crystalline form. — Comptes Rendas, October 13, 1881, p. 615. 



On the Aaatomtj of the Tyroulyphi. By Dr. Alfred Naleper, 



Digestive Apparatus. — The oesophagus enters the stomach about 

 where the body is constricted by the divisional furrow which is 

 characteristic of the TyroriJyphi. Its two posterior angles arc con- 

 tinued into wide ca3ca, which lie on the two sides of the intestine 

 and reach as far as the rectum. The intestine originates from the 

 dorsal part of the stomach. It is divided into a globular section 

 and the rectum. These two sections are tmited by a short and 

 narrow tube, into which the urinary vessels open. Histologically, 

 the intestinal canal consists of a delicate tunica p>rQpria and the 

 epithelium ; there is no intestinal muscular layer even in the rectum. 

 The epithelial cells of the stomach are small and strongly convex at 

 the upper end. In the caDca and also upon certain parts of the 

 stomach they grow longer and clavute, and become filled with a 

 finely granular secretion, which is only slightly stained by carmine. 

 The epithelial cells of the intestine are pavement-like and covered 

 with a cuticle. In the oesophagus there is no epithelial lining. The 

 anal fissure is situated in a fold of the outer integument, and is 

 supported by two narrow, fluted, chitinous plates, to which numerous 

 muscular fibres are attached. 



The urinary vessels have not previously been met with in the Tyro- 

 ghjphi. They consist of two short tubes, placed on the two sides 

 of the intestine, and opening in common into the upper part of the 

 rectum. Their wall consists of a structureless tunica propria and 

 of large, very convex secreting-cells, which have wide intercellular 

 spaces between them. The product of secretion is finely granular, 

 and consists of uric acid and urates — at least I detected these 

 chemically in great abundance in the balls of excrement. 



The nervous system is not, as hitherto supposed, a simple ganglion 

 traversed by the oesophagus. There is rather in the Tyroyhjphi 

 also a separation of the central nervous sj'stem into a cordate supra- 

 and a laminar infra oesophageal ganglion. The two are closely 



