BULLA. 279 



well washed out, is easily observed ; and from it the yellowish- 

 white wrinkled oviduct, also most visible, springs from the 

 ovary as a slender thread, but as it proceeds it increases 

 rapidly in volume, and then as suddenly diminishes, termi- 

 nating in the matrix by a fine thread. The matrix and its 

 vestibule is a strong, yellow, tough, tubular subcylindrical 

 organ, with a transverse constriction denoting the anterior 

 chamber ; it is, I think, erroneously marked k, and called the 

 testes in M. Cuvier's pi. 2. fig. 14. of the memoir. The mis- 

 take has arisen from the latter organ lying close, but some- 

 what posterior to it, and is very different, being of much 

 softer, flatter, more even and elongated form ; its colour is pale 

 drab. I think the flat, oval, yellow gland near the bladder 

 and heart, which Cuvier states to be of unknown use, is an 

 appendent to the testis ; as I thought I could trace, through 

 the transparent membrane, the excretory duct to the posterior 

 part of that organ. 



Since the above was written, additional dissections have 

 assured us that the organ alluded to above, marked k, is 

 really meant for the testicle. 



The bladder is as large as a small pea, of a pale purplish-red 

 mixed colour ; it is nearly globular, and lies on the left side, 

 full of a light pinkish liquid, not acrid but oily, with red- 

 brown specks in it ; I have seen similar ones in the ova ; its 

 excretory duct crosses from the left side and certainly enters 

 the matrix ; it is doubtless a lubricating or an enveloping fluid 

 for the ova ; I think it has the latter function ; it is never 

 flaccid, but always distended : where is the source of the large 

 mass of fluid ? Its external coat appears to be a network of 

 minute vessels, and I presume they are the ducts which distil 

 the secretion from the larger veins. The " organe generateur" 

 when not exserted lies doubled up in the oesophageal cavity ; 

 it is of trifid form, that is, finger-, spindle-, and club-shape, 

 which latter portion extends to and lies on the gizzard ; there 

 is no internal connection between it and the testis. Of this 

 I am sure, as in consequence of the shape and position of the 

 parts, that fact admits of being accurately ascertained. It 

 may therefore be considered as almost certain, that the long, 



