Royal Society. 289 



divided into two lobules, one above the other. I am inclined to think 

 that these bands are what have been described as * hepatic arteries,' 

 at least tbere is nothing else that could possibly be confounded with 

 an arterial ramification upon the liver. 



This description applies more especially to Rhynchonella and 

 Waldheimia, but the arrangement in Lingula is not essentially dif- 

 ferent. 



2. The Circulatory System of Terebratulidce. — Considerable differ- 

 ences of opinion have prevailed among comparative anatomists as to 

 the nature and arrangement of the vascular system in the Brachio- 

 poda. A pair of organs, one on each side of the body, have been re- 

 cognized as Hearts since the time of Cuvier, who declared these 

 hearts in Lingula to be aortic, receiving the blood from tbe mantle 

 and pouring it into the body, the principal arterial trunks being dis- 

 tributed into that glandular mass which Cuvier called ovary, but 

 ■which is now known to be the genital gland of either sex. 



Professor Owen in his first memoir follows Cuvier's interpretation, 

 stating that in Orbicula the pallial veins terminate in the hearts, 

 from which arterial branches proceed to the liver and ovary. Pro- 

 fessor Owen further adds for the Brachiopoda in general, — 



" Each heart, for example, in the Brachiopoda is as simple as in 

 Ascidia, consisting of a single elongated cavity, and not composed of 

 a distinct auricle and ventricle as in the ordinary Bivalves," and he 

 compares the hearts of Brachiopoda to the auricles of Area, &c. 

 (Trans. Zoological Society, vol. i. p. 159.) 



In 1843, however, M. Vogt's elaborate memoir on Lingula ap- 

 peared, in which the true complex structure of the ' heart ' in this 

 genus was first explained and the plaited ' auricle ' discriminated 

 from the 'ventricle'; and in 1845, Professor Owen, having apparently 

 been thus led to re-examine the circulatory organs of Brachiopoda, 

 published his ' Lettre sur l'appareil de la Circulation chez les Mol- 

 lusques de la Classe des Brachiopodes,' in which he felicitates 

 M. Milne-Edwards on the important confirmation of the views which 

 the latter entertains with respect to the lacunar nature of the circu- 

 lation in the Mollusca, afforded by the Brachiopoda, and describes 

 each heart of the Terebratulidse as consisting of a ventricle and a 

 plaited auricle, the pallial veins not terminating in the latter, but in 

 the general visceral cavity. As the Professor does not recall the view 

 which he had already taken of the circulation in Orbicula, I presume 

 that he considers two opposite types of the circulatory organs to ob- 

 tain in the Brachiopoda, the direction of the current being from the 

 mantle through the heart towards the body in Orbicula, and from 

 the mantle through the body towards the heart in Terebratula. 



The possibilities of nature are so various that I would not venture, 

 without having carefully dissected Orbicula, — no opportunity of doing 

 which has yet presented itself, — to call this view in question, but I 

 think it seems somewhat improbable. Indeed the structural rela- 

 tions which I have observed, and which are described below, do not 

 appear to me to square with any of the received doctrines of Bra- 



Ann.^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol.xiv. 19 



