VII 



MOLLUSCATHE SENSORY ORGANS 



167 



fibres of the other aesthetes of the shell-plate, between the tegmentum 

 and articulamentum to the surrounding pallial tissue, or else pene- 

 trates the articulamentum. 



The significance of the separate constituent parts of the aesthetes and their 

 fibrous strands is not yet certainly known. It is probable that they are innervated 

 from the dorsal lateral branches of the pleuro-visceral cords. It is even not known 

 whether the fibrous strands are their nerves, or whether the clear fibres running 

 through them are long sensory cells whose nuclei may lie between the glandular 

 cells, and in connection with nerve fibres. 



We are perhaps justified in assuming that the {esthetes are merely modifications 



tnk 



FIG. 143. Section of the tegmentum of Chiton laevis showing an aesthete (after Blumrich). 

 mk, Micrsesthete ; per, periostracum ; sk, principal aesthete ; t, tegmentum ; dz, cells resembling 

 glandular cells ; Jif, clear fibres ; /s, fibrous strand ; c, chitinous cap. 



of the spines with their papilla and formative cells, which are so common in the 

 integument of the Chitonidce. The chitinous cap would then represent part of the 

 chitinogenous base of the spine. 



The sensory nature of the aesthetes is rendered highly probable 

 by the circumstance that in a few species of Chiton individual megal- 

 aesthetes are transformed into eyes. 



Each eye is furnished with a pigmented envelope, which is pene- 

 trated by the micraesthetes, and outwardly covered by an arched 

 layer of the tegmentum which forms the cornea. Under this is a 

 lens, and under this again a cell layer, which is regarded as a retina, 

 and to which is attached a fibrous strand (optic nerve ?) corresponding 

 with the fibrous strands of the ordinary aesthetes. 



B. Auditory Organs. 



All Mollusca except the Amphineura possess auditory organs, which 

 appear very rarely in the embryo. They take the form of two almost 



