‘Miscellaneous. 303 — 
' T have not been able to trace from its commencement the appear- 
anee of the spermatozoids; I have, however, once seen them united 
by the head, in great numbers, in their mother cells (male ovules) ; 
the latter then burst, and the spermatozoids group themselves in a 
single bundle in a large sac with thin walls without epithelium. 
Between this sac and the testicular pouch float a number of corpus- 
cles measuring 0°0045 millim., the nature of which is unknown to me. 
I cannot regard the dorsal cord as formed of cells (Quatrefages) 
or of disks (J. Miller &c.). Longitudinal sections showed a more 
regular structure, namely lamellee composed of semisolid amorphous 
material. But these lamellee towards the centre of the dorsal cord 
are forked in proportion as they recede from that centre, giving ori- 
gin to secondary lamelle in gradually increasing numbers, which do 
not reach the whole surface of the dorsal cord. Hence arise those 
parallel lines which have led to the belief in juxtaposed disks, and 
which, occupying a part of the circumference, have been regarded 
by M. de Quatrefages as limiting large flattened cells. Nor can I 
share the opinion of M. Marcusen, according to which the large 
bodies contained in the cells of the fin on the one hand, and in the 
swelled extremity of the spinal marrow on the other, are composed 
of capillaries. In the first place, the large bodies are translucid 
and homogeneous, whilst the swollen extremity (so well described by 
M. de Quatrefages) is filled with corpuscles perfectly similar to those 
which strike us at the first glance in the spmal marrow. Secondly, 
in some fragments of Amphiorus which had been cut for several 
‘days, and were still living, these parts preserved their dimensions, 
which would not have been the case if they had been composed of 
capillaries full of blood. The spinal~marrow contains, both in the 
‘swollen and contracted parts, some cells which are very difficult to 
‘see clearly. They did not appear to me to be round, as is generally 
‘stated, but angular or polar.. I have seen from an angle on one of 
them, which was tripolar and measured 0°015 millim., a fibre origi- 
nate: and soon become bifurcated. : 
The manifest contradiction between the description of .M. de 
-‘Quatrefages and that of M. Marcusen with regard to the termination 
‘of the cutaneous nerves appears to me to be founded on a premature 
generalization. If we examine the cutaneous nerves in the middle 
and posterior regions of the body, we find them ramifying more 
‘and more, losing their proper envelope, and at last becoming so fine 
that their extremities cannot be distinguished. I have reason to 
believe that they present anastomoses in their course. But the 
nerves which proceed from the facial trunks (second, third, fourth, 
and fifth pairs of Quatrefages) behave differently ; after a short 
course, they arrive at some oval cellular bodies, measuring from 
0-012 to 0°015 millim., filled with granules, with one or two nuclei 
‘of 0°004 millim. These cells, pointed out by Quatrefages, are the 
‘very terminations of the nervous filaments ; but they only exist for 
the facial filaments, in which they undoubtedly indicate some parti- 
cular function. 
The anterior termination of the spinal marrow of Amphiozus, 
although not inflated, nevertheless plays the part of an encephalon.; 
