428 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY 



bodies are put into water, they twist themselves in various 

 directions, and throw out at one of their extremities an 

 opake fluid. These motions are not excited by placing 

 them in oil or spirit of wine, but they may be exhibited by 

 immersing in water those which have been kept for years 

 in spirits. 



These bodies, first observed by SWAMMERDAM, and af- 

 terwards by NEEDHAM, have been regarded by some as 

 demonstrating the truth of the vermicular theory of gene- 

 ration ; by others, they have been considered as analogous 

 to the pollen of plants that their tunic is in part soluble 

 in water, and when they are thrown into that fluid, they 

 speedily burst, and spread their impregnating contents over 

 the eggs of the female. Although this last conjecture is 

 plausible, and countenanced by the circumstance that these 

 vermicular bodies are only found at the season of repro- 

 duction, the subject is still involved in obscurity. Are 

 these bodies produced in the testicle, and only brought to 

 this bag when nearly ready for exclusion ; or, if the pro- 

 duct of the bag itself, by what means are they nourished ? 



The male organs terminate in a cylindrical fleshy body 

 termed the Penis. This is hollow within, and ribbed with 

 muscular bands. Near its base it receives one of the ducts 

 of the vermicular sac, continuous with the one from the 

 prostate gland, forming its canal, and toward the apex the 

 other duct. It projects but a short way into the cavity of 

 the great bag, into which it empties its contents. These 

 pass out of the body at the funnel-form opening in the 

 throat. 



The female organs of generation consist of an ovarium 

 and oviduct. The ovarium is a glandular sac, to which 

 the ova are attached by footstalks. The opening by which 

 they issue from the ovarium is wide, and the oviduct (in 

 the Octopus vulgaris and Loligo sagittata), after continu- 



