CGELELMINTHA. 105 



secreting organs been detected ; in one example, Gnathostoma 

 aculeatum, (Owen,) found in the stomach of the tiger, and which 

 is remarkable as possessing a pair of rudimentary jaws, four slen- 

 der elongated caeca are appended to the mouth, into which they 

 pour a fluid analogous, no doubt, to that of the salivary glands.* 

 In a species of ascaris, found in the stomach of the dugong, Mr. 

 Owen likewise discovered a csecal appendage opening into the ali- 

 mentary tube at some distance from the mouth, and which, without 

 much stretch of imagination, may be regarded as the first and sim- 

 plest rudiment of a biliary system.')' 



In further prosecuting our inquiries concerning the process 

 of nutrition in these entozoa, we must now speak of a peculiar 

 structure first noticed by Cloquet,j and apparently intimately 

 connected with the assimilation of nutriment. Projecting from 

 the inner surface of the abdominal cavity, especially in the dorsal 

 and ventral regions, there is a great number of gelatinous, spongy 

 processes (appendices nourriciers) , which, although they have no 

 apparent central cavity, would seem to be appended to vascular 

 canals seen upon the lateral aspects of the body : it is probable, 

 therefore, that their office is to absorb the nutritive juices, which 

 exude through the delicate walls of the intestine, and convey them 

 into the circulatory apparatus ; or they may be reservoirs for nou- 

 rishment, analogous to the adipose tissue of higher animals. 



(142.) In the Ccelelmintha the sexes are separate, and the genera- 

 tive organs, both of the male and female, exhibit great simplicity 

 of structure. In the female Ascaris, the aperture communicating 

 with the ovigerous apparatus is placed upon the ventral aspect of 

 the body, a little anterior to the middle of the worm (Jig. 44, 1, ra). 

 This opening leads into a wide canal (/), usually called the uterus ; 

 and from the last-mentioned organ arise two long and undulating 

 tubes, which, diminishing in size, run towards the posterio ex- 

 tremity, where they become completely filiform, and turning back 

 upon themselves are wound in innumerable tortuous convolutions 

 around the posterior portion of the alimentary canal, until the 

 termination of each becomes nearly imperceptible from its extreme 

 tenuity. In these tubes, which when unravelled are upwards of 

 four feet in length, the ova are formed in great numbers, and 

 are found to advance in maturity as they approach the dilated 



* Owen, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Nov. 1836. 



t Preparation, No. 429 A. Mus. Coll. Surg. Phys. Catalogue, p. 121. 



t Cloquet, Anatomic des Vers Intestinaux ; Paris, 1824. 



