MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



291 



Zoologist of European reputation has said that they are nephridia; at 

 the word of authority, red appears as white and avoid objects seem tubu- 

 lar ; but how about the perplexed student, who in Bombay, no less than 

 in Calcutta, is urged to see things as they are ? 



In Fig. Ill is shown an outline drawing 

 of a part of an oesophageal gland. The 

 size of the ducts in its relation to the size 

 of the oesophagus was laid down from the 

 object with the help of the camera lucida, 

 it is not exaggerated. Let it be admitted 

 at once, both by Dr. Powell and myself, 

 that neither of us know the nature of the substance v/hich pours down 

 these ducts into the oesophagus ; but as the ducts are so large, we may be 

 sure that the function is important. Dr. Powell believes presumably that 

 the substance is some kind of excreta. But what happens to it on entering 

 the oesophagus, — does it return to the blood in a vicious cycle, does it travel 

 unabsorbed through tho whole length of the intestine, or does the worm 

 retch and throw it out of the mouth ? Considerations such as these prevent 

 me from teaching my students that these organs are excretory in function, 

 quite apart from the fact that their actual function is unknown. I do 

 not deny that nephridial tubes open into the oesophagus ; for it is easy to 

 see that many of them open into the ducts of the oesophageal glands ; 

 but I still persist in regarding the oesophageal glands as distinct, 

 anatomically — and most probably physiologically — from the excretory 

 organs. 



Dr. Powell objects to the term used because "the name oesophageal 

 glands has already been given to well recognised structures of totally 

 different homology." It is probable that by throwing together the syno- 

 nymous terms calciferous glands and oesophageal pouches, which are both 

 well known, he has come to the erroneous conclusion that the non- 

 committal term oesophageal glands has been used for something else. I am 

 quite unable to say whether these glands are homologous with the well 

 known pouches of the European worm ; indeed, it seems that the word 

 homology has recently lost much of its meaning. If, as many think, we 

 must give up our dreams of one organ gradually fading into another — for 

 example, of a nephric organ becoming half peptic, half nephric and 

 finally wholly pe^jtic — so, accordingly, we must hesitate in using the word 

 homologous. 



R. E. LLOYD, Capt., i.m.s. 

 Calcutta. 



Capt. Lloyd's text-book says of the rasa defereniia in Pheretima ( Peri- 

 chseta) posthuma, " the two ducts of a side come in contact in the 12tk 



