<§>259. THE CEPHALOPODA. 297 



which it is seen of a milk-white color. Its posterior extremity is attached, 

 by a short, small ligament, to a kind of piston which forms the anterior por- 

 tion of the projectile apparatus. 



This piston is a solid, cylindrical body, continuous behind with a spiral 

 ligament which is contained in a thin sheath extending to the posterior 

 extremity of the tube, in a fold of which it terminates. ^^'' 



The Spermatophores are evidently formed in the upper glandular portion of 

 the deferent canal, where droplets of sperm are often seen arranged in rows, 

 and, at first, appear surrounded by simple, colorless envelopes ; these, as 

 they advance in the Vas deferens, gradually resemble more and more the 

 perfect Spermatophores. 



Those found in the Bursa Needhamii are always regularly arranged, and 

 sometimes form, lengthwise, several superposed layers. Their anterior 

 extremities always point forwards, and not unfrequently their posterior 

 ends are bound together by long, flattened, interlaced filaments. These 

 Spermatophores are in the highest degree hygroscopic : they absorb liquids 

 very quickly, and then their posterior extremity bursts, allowing the escape 

 of the compressed spiral ligament together with its sheath, and the piston, 

 which draws with it the sperm-sac to which it is attached.*^' 



The projection of the seminal sacs occurs, most probably, at the moment 

 when, during coition, the Spermatophores pass from the penis of the male 

 into the sac of the mouth of the female. A true intromission of the penis 

 into the female genital opening, appears impossible with these animals, so 

 that coition consists only in a simple juxtaposition of the genital organs.^*' 

 The fecundation of the eggs should occur very early — while the eggs are 



2 Needham (An account of some new Microscop- has figured anew, as an Entozoa, and even as an 

 ical Discoveries, London, 1745, or Nouv. d^couv. Echinorkynchus, the uncoiled Spermatophores of 

 faites avec le Microsc. Leyde, 1747, PI. III. IV.), Loli^o (Descriz. III. 1841, p. 138. Tav. XI. fig. 

 was the first who descriljed accurately the Sper- 12, 13). fVagner, also, formerly regarded thoso 

 matophores of Loliso vulsfaris. With those of of Sepia as containing an Echinorhynchus, and 

 the Loligina, the posterior extr^ity, is enlarged, has figured as such the piston with the spiral liga- 

 with one or two constrictions, and contains the ment in a rudunentary state (Lehrb. d. vergleich. 

 spiral ligament with its sheath ; the piston also, Anat. 1835, p. 312, and Muller^s Arch. 1836, p. 

 from its deep-brown color, is easily seen; see Krohn, 230, Taf. IX. fig. B. C). 



m Froriep\s neue Notiz. XII. 1839, p. 17, fig. 20 Carus went even still further, and described the 



(Sepia); Milne Edwards, Ann. d. Sc. Nat. XVIII. Spermatophores as gigantic spermatic animals uu- 



1842, p. 335, PI. XII. fig. 1-5, XIII. fig. 1-6 der the name of iVeerfAamia expulsoria ; and re- 



{Loligo and Sepia); Peters, in Muller''s Arch, garded the parts they contained, such as the 



1842, p. 334, Taf. XVI. fig. 11 (Sepiola). With sperm-sac, the piston, the spiral ligament, &c., as 



those of Octopus, and Eledone, the posterior en- a colon, a small intestine, a stomach, a crop, and 



largement is very slight, and often, at this point, an oesophagus (Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. XIX. I. 



the envelope is entirely involuted ; the seminal sac, 1839, p. 3, Tab. I., and ErlSuterungstaf. loc. cit. 



moreover, is remarkable from its spiral form ; see Hft. V. 1840, p. 4, Taf. I. fig. 10). It was not until 



Milne Edwards, loc. cit. p. 338, PI. XIII. fig. 1839, a time when several naturalists were con- 



8-10, XIV. fig. 1-6 (Octopus and Eledone); vinced of the presence of spermatic particles in the 



Philippi, in Muller''s Arch. 1839, p. 301, Taf. XV. sperm-sac, that the true nature of these bodies was 



fig. 1-6 (Eledone); this last author has erroneously fully understood ; see Philippi, in Muller''s Arch, 



taken the spiral turns of the ligament for hooks 1839, p. 301 ; Krohn, in Froriep's neue Notiz. 



pointing backwards. XII. 1839, p. 17 ; Siebold, Beitrage z. Natur- 



3 Redi (De AuimalcuUs vivis quae in corporibus geschichte d. wirbell. Thiere, 1839, p. 51; Peters, in 

 anunalium vivorum reperiuntur, Lugd. Batav. 1729, Miiller^s Arch. 1840, p. 98, and Milne Edwards, 

 p. 252, Tab. II. fig. 2), was the first who saw Ann. d. Sc. Nat. XIII. 1840, p. 193. Leuckart 

 theso Spermatophores ; but he took them for worms. (Zool. Bruclistiicke, Hft. II. 1841, p. 93) has given 

 Swamnierdamm, on the other hand (Bib. d. Natur, the history and criticism of the opinions relating to 

 p. 353, Taf. LII. fig. 6, 7), and especially Needham the sperm machines of Needham. 



(loc. cit.), had a correct idea of their nature, for i Aristotle (Hist. Animal, lib. V. cap. 5) had 



they regarded the white substance they contained already declared that the Cephalopoda copulate by 



as sperm, and the Spermatophores themselves as a a kind of embrace. From the observations of Le- 



kmJ of cases or machines. But this did not pre bert and Robin (loc. cit. p. 135, and Ann. d. Sc. 



vent the later anatomists from regarding them as Nat. IV. 1845, p. -95, PI. IX. fig. 5, 6), it would 



parasites. Thus Delle Chiaje described those of appear that the males do not deposit the spermatic 



Octopus and Sepia under the names of Monosto- particles further in than the cavity of the mantle 



mumoctopodis,a.ndScolexdibotlirius(yiem.I'V. of the females ; for they observed, with a female 



p. 53, Tav. LV. fig. 8, 14, 9, 9. d). Even latterly, this Loligo, numerous Spermatophores glued to the 



naturalist has not relinquished this opinion, for he internal surface of this cavity, near the oviduct. 



