432 UTERINE EFFERENT 



constitute a very appreciable part of the feces. No such detritus is ever 

 seen in the demanian system. 



Furthermore, on examining living pristiurus &nd fuscus, both of which I find 

 to occur along Cape Cod, U. S. A., I find that when the food in the intestine 

 is moving rapidly back and forth opposite zur Strassen's supposed open 

 connection, no portion of it ever enters the enteric efferent. There is not 

 even the slightest corresponding disturbance of the contents of the lumen of 

 the enteric efferent close by, which, as zur Strassen also points out, can be 

 seen in the end portion of the demanian tube where it joins the surface of the 

 intestine. 



Possibly the analogous connection with the uterus is hardly to be taken as a 

 very distinctly open one. True, I have seen cases in pristiurus where, when 

 the diseased uterus was filled with microorganisms (microorganisms causing 

 the disease*), the continuous mass of them also filled the nearby part of the 

 corresponding demanian vessel in such a way that there was a direct "tubular" 

 connection between the uterus and the vessel. Normally, however, the 

 conditions are as follows: One traces the uterine demanian vessel directly 

 forward to the uterus, where its lumen continues for a short distance into a 

 glandular tissue in the posterior end of the uterus, zur Strassen's so-called 

 "blind end, behind the vulva," and there ceases in the midst of a large 

 number of uterine cells somewhat similar to many of those constituting the 

 main portion of the wall, i.e. what seems to be a special collection of glandular 

 uterine cells. In fuscus this same thing occurs where the oviducts join the 

 proximal ends of the two uteri, not, as in pristiurus, at the posterior portion 

 of the single uterus close to the vulva; the histology of this junction, however, 

 is much the same in these two species. It is as if special uterine cells were 

 devoted to secreting material to be deli vered to the demanian system through 

 the uterine efferent, the "tube de communication" of deMan. 



In pristiurus the long tubular vessel connecting the uterus with the de- 

 manian system, the uterine efferent, often is difficult to see, especially in 

 its entirety. No better proof of this could be required than that it escaped so 

 keen an observer as zur Strassen. 



Even in Adoncholaimus fuscus, while the two short uterine efferents can 

 sometimes be followed from the uteri to the main vessel of the demanian 

 system, often it is practically impossible in a given specimen to follow them 

 throughout their course. Knowing their locality and structure, one can 

 usually determine how they lie and their probable limits, but that is about all. 

 Of course, in a small minority of favorable poecimens quite the contrary is 

 true; the entire tube can be made out satisfactorily as was first done by 

 deMan. 



* This disease appears to have nothing to do with uritis (see p. 240) ; uritis seems an 

 entirely distinct disease. 



