290 LIEUT.-COL. H. H. GODWIN-AUSTEN ON [Apr. 20, 



Before describing or making any remarks of my own on this 

 particular organ, it will be as well to refer to the works of other 

 naturalists who have made the anatomy of the MoUusca their especial 

 study, and then to compare and extend their valuable deductions to 

 the Indian species now treated of. 



M. A, Moquin-Tandon^ (1851) and, later, M. P. Fischer have 

 written on this organ of the Pulmoniferous Gastropods. In the ' An- 

 nales des Sciences Naturelles,' vol. vii. (18.t7), M. Fischer refers in 

 terms of admiration and praise to the labours of Lister, who so far 

 back as 1694 described and figured under the name of "capreolus" 

 a curious organ, slender, thread-like, which is to be found in the 

 genital apparatus of H. pomatia (Exercit. Anat. p. 115, tab. ii. 

 tigs. 4, 5, London). I will quote his own words : — "Nous donnons 

 testuellement en note le assage de Lister relatif au capreolus; car 

 il demontre le zele et la sagacite qu'il apporta dans ses observa- 

 tions, alors que la zoologie comparee etait encore a creer." Since 

 Lister's time many naturalists have written on the subject, while 

 some do not mention it at all when treating of the Land-MoUusca. 

 Thus, Cuvier " says nothing of this organ in the fine monograph 

 which he published on Helix pomatia; and various uses have been 

 assigned to it. Draparnaud took the capreolus for the dart in Helix 

 vermiculata, 



Nitzsch (1826) notices it in H. arbustorum as not united to the 

 genital organs, and had seen it come'out a short way from the genital 

 orifice; he did not attempt to explain its use, and called it the " corps 

 enigmatique." Duverney, in //. aspersu, thought it condensed sperm. 

 Van Beneden called it " un stylet " in Parmacella ; Blainville, " un 

 corps styliforme " in Parmacella palliorum. Dutrociiet noted the 

 spermatophore of Arion rvfus, but did not interpret its meaning well ; 

 but Siebold, according to Fischer, foresaw its use : he says that it is 

 " a slender body, of peculiar form, which in Helix hortensis and H. 

 arbustoru7n is seen sticking out near the genital cloaca alter fecun- 

 dation, and which, when drawn in, is rolled up in a spiral at both ex- 

 tremities " ^ Moquin-Tandon describes two different type forms in 

 Helix &wA Arion. It has also been noticed in Limax, Bulimus, Pel- 

 tella ; and, summing up, we find : — 



1 . That nearly all naturalists are of opinion that it is only deve- 

 loped at the period of reproduction and has only a temporary exis- 

 tence *. 



2. That it is a perfectly free body, not attached to the generative 

 organs, and formed partly in the flagellum ^ and partly in the sheath 

 of the penis. 



There is only one exception given : in Parmacella valenciennii : M. 

 Van Beneden concluded that it was a true organ and always present. 



' ' Journal de Conchyliologie,' 23rd Dec. 1851, p. 333 ; and Comptes Eendiis, 

 vol. xli. p. 857, (1855). 



^ " Memoire sur la Limace et le Limacon," Aun. Mus. vii. (ISOfi), p. 140. 



3 Baudelot, Ann. Sci. Nat. 1863, p. 136, gives a good history of the various 

 papers on the subject of the generative .npparatus of the Pulmonifera. 



* P. Fisher Para, Annates des Sciences Nat. vii. (ZooL), p. 376 (1857). 



* Moquin-Tandon, Comptes Eendus, 1855, p. 857 



