130 Dr. J. Stephenson on some 
There appears to be absolutely no warrant for this statement 
of what takes place in early development, and the condition 
so described would be totally without precedent. On exami- 
nation there is found to be here, as always, only one pair 
of testes or sperm-sacs, attached to septum 9/10. 
The prostate is said to be a comparatively small spherical 
structure. It is, in fact, a very large and conspicuous object, 
and is remarkable in being bifid. It would appear that 
Mr. Rao has mistaken these prostate glands for the “second 
pair of sperm-sacs.”’ 
There is an “ ovarianchamber” (modified eleventh segment) 
which is not mentioned by Mr. Rao. [é would be impossible 
in this genus for the egg-sacs to be suspended, as Mr. Rao 
says, from septum 10/11; the ovaries are throughout in 
segment x1. (or in a chamber which represents this segment 
narrowed and modified in form), and the ovisacs are 
posterior bulgings of septum 11/12 (or of the posterior 
wall of the chamber). 
Mr. Rao gives lengthy descriptions of the microscopical 
structure of a number of the organs of this worm and of 
some of the others. The condition of the British Museum 
specimens, at any rate, does not seem to me to be such as to 
make detailed histological description advisable. Mr. Rao, 
however, describing certain glandular finger-shaped ‘‘ alimen- 
tary appendages,” gives an account, not easy to understand, 
of their development; certain muscular fibres of the gut- 
wall change their character and, becoming metamorphosed, 
give rise to the glandular processes, one process being de- 
rived from a single muscular fibre. The cells fringing the 
adult processes are compared to the solenocytes of Poly- 
cheta ; and there is said to be histological affinity between 
these enteric appendages of Drawida and the “ entero- 
nephridia ” of Pheretima ; indeed, diagrams are given to 
illustrate the evolution of septal nephridia from enteric 
appendages such as those of these worms—in this process of 
evolution the supra-intestinal blood-vessel becomes an ex- 
eretory duct. ‘The main function of the alimentary appen- 
dages is supposed to be that of storing water. 
Without remarking on the numerous other structures 
which are described by Mr. Rao, I might perhaps mention 
that in the same species to which the above refers, the 
spermathecal atrium is figured as having an outer chitinous 
layer (¢. e., on its peritoneal surface), and is described in 
the text as having an outer tunic which is a thin cuticular 
layer. 
Such extraordinary morphological ideas need not be 
seriously discussed. I do not think it is too much to say 
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