4 Dr. It. Greeff on the Annelid Genus Spherodorum, 
that all these appendages, as already stated, are glands; for the 
cirri of the Annelids in general are not to be regarded merely 
as organs of touch or motion, but may apparently be subser- 
vient to very various purposes *. 
If we now examine these globular cutaneous appendages 
more closely, we observe, even with a low power, that their 
cavities are occupied by a coil of tortuous vermiform bodies, which 
(irsted + has already detected and described in the dorsal cirri 
of Spherodorum, and with regard to which he proposes the 
question whether they may not be ovaries. These peculiar 
structures seem to have entirely escaped Johnston {, which I can 
only explain by supposing that he did not examine them ina - 
fresh state; for if the animals under examination be dead, or — 
if they have been exposed for some time to pressure for the 
purpose of observation, nothing remains of the original appear- 
ance, in consequence of the breaking up of the vermiform bodies. 
Johnston regards the globular appendages in Spherodorum 
(Pollicita pertpatus) as branchize. To Claparéde belongs the 
merit of having first more accurately grasped the morpholo- 
gical nature, although he could not arrive at any definite 
opinion as to the physiological signification of these organs. He 
thought that he could see an orifice § in the papilliform process 
which occurs on the upper part of the globular dorsal cirri in 
Spherodorum, but not in our animals, but found that the cap- 
sule was closed in other respects; in this, however, as Kélliker 
has proved, he was in error. 
Kolhker|| first placed their histological and by that means also 
their physiological character in the proper light, when he found 
that the papilliform process in Spherodorum is not perforated, 
but that each of the vermiform bodies situated in the interior 
of the capsule opens externally by an orifice of its own. He 
regards the individual bodies as tubular glands, which “ appa- 
rently consist entirely of rounded-angular, dark, cell-like struc- 
tures.” 
As regards my own observations, I have but little to add to 
Kolliker’s statements in relation to the structure of these organs, 
The mammilliform process occurring upon the capsules in Sphe- 
rodorum is entirely wanting in our animals; so that I can ex- 
press no opinion as to the perforation which Clapérede describes, 
but, according to Kdlliker, has no existence; I can, however, 
completely confirm KGlliker’s results, according to which each of 
* See Ehler’s ‘ Die Borstenwiirmer,’ p. 22. 
t “ Zur Classification der Annulaten,’’ Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1844, p. 108. 
t ‘Annals,’ vol. xvi. p. 5, pl. 2. ) 
§ Beobacht. tiber Anat. der wirbell. Thiere, p. 21, taf. 11. figs. 12, 13. 
|| Wurzb. naturw. Zeitschrift, 1864, p. 240, taf. 6. fig. 1. 
