240 Miscellaneous. 
the detection of the orifices very difficult, causing us still to be 
ignorant of their position in most species. 
In studying in detail the nervous system of Thefys, I have ascer- 
tained that two very distinct and comparatively very large nerves 
pass to each of the sphincters of the orifices, and that sometimes, 
before penetrating into the muscle, they even become inflated into a 
very small centre or nervous ganglion. I should add that these nerves 
have their origin from the central parts of the nervous system of the 
life of relation, and not from the great sympathetic. 
From this anatomical arrangement we must evidently chine that 
the opening of the orifices is not effected without a direct influence 
emanating from the nervous centres, and that the animal certainly 
appreciates the occasion for the relaxation of the sphincter and the 
escape or admission of fluids. 
But things do not go on in the same way in all the lower animals. 
In the Gephyrea, and especially in Bonellia, I have shown that 
one liquid fills the general cavity of the body, and is distinct from a 
second, contained in proper vessels. The former can be poured out 
by the orifices of reproduction and by the terminal cups of the renal 
glands, which present a very curious arrangement. Imagine a race- 
mose gland of which all the grains or acini are terminated, not as in 
ordinary glands, ceecally, but by elegant cups or urns, covered with 
vibratile cilia causing currents from the outside to the inside of the 
gland through a little canal,—imagine, besides, the kidney floating in 
the midst of the general cavity of the body, giving it a portion of 
the elements of the secretion, and on the other hand taking from it 
directly, by means of its vibratile cilia, a portion which it rejects out- 
wardly,—and we shall have an idea of the very remarkable renal ap- 
paratus of Bonellia. 
In no other animal belonging to a high order of the animal series 
has there been described a similar organ effecting direct depuration 
by motory organs, and independent of any physiological act of 
secretion properly so called. 
In the Ceelenterate Zoophytes, again, things take place differently. 
The liquids which circulate in the innumerable canals hollowed out 
in the sarcosoma of these composite animals come directly from the 
stomach, without the intermediation of absorption. They pass 
through orifices pierced in the walls of the digestive cavity, and are 
thus poured directly into the apparatus of circulation ; they may also 
be rejected by the way through which they penetrated, namely the 
mouth. 
From the preceding facts we may conclude that the conditions 
under which nutrition is effected im these low animals differ pro- 
foundly from those which correspond with the same function in the 
higher animals; for the blood of the Mollusca, Gephyrea, and 
Zoophytes must be very different from that of the Vertebrata, even 
in consequence of the direct relation which it has with the outer 
world.— Comptes Rendus, December 18th, 1865, pp. 1101-1105. 
