ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 189 



After describing their habits and general form, the author gives 

 a detailed account of their various organs. The cuticle is, as com- 

 pared with that of the Oligochfeta, excessively delicate (not more than 

 • 002 mm. thick) ; it is not provided with any tactile setee or other 

 processes, and when fresh, is with difficulty separated from the 

 hypodermis ; it is traversed by pore-canals, and there are, in addition 

 to these, rounded lacunae which are arranged in parallel rows. The 

 hypodermis is best examined after treatment with chromic acid and 

 alum-cochineal or saffranin ; the latter colouring agent brings out 

 the nuclei and the rod-shaped or spindle-shaped bodies ; these 

 are found in the intercellular substance, and there are in addition 

 a number of pigment-granules. The muscular system is extra- 

 ordinarily well developed, and consists of circular, longitudinal, and 

 dorso-ventral muscles, as well as of obliquely-set muscles in the 

 anterior region. As was to be expected, the ccelom or body-cavity is 

 broken up by dissepiments into a number of chambers, which are most 

 distinct in the posterior portion of the body. Into the formation of 

 these dissepiments the dorso-ventral muscles enter ; and the cavity 

 only communicates with the outer world by means of the orifices of 

 the segmental organs, the large pores which are found in the terri- 

 colous Oligochseta being here completely absent. 



The most important point noticed in the enteric tract would 

 appear to be the cseca, which are developed in its more posterior 

 portion, and which have their walls specially modified ; no definite 

 opinion can be given as to their function, but they would appear to be 

 secreting organs ; they have some resemblance to the swim-bladder- 

 like organs lately described by Eisig in the Syllidea,* but in this form 

 they never contain gas, and their walls are not contractile. Passing 

 to the nervous system, we find the author including the sub-oesophageal 

 ganglia in the brain ; the ventral cord is surrounded by muscles, and 

 is not, as in most Ariciidae (Mcintosh), outside them. Transverse 

 sections show the existence of a more or less rounded space, which 

 leads to a belief in the presence of a canal extending through the 

 ventral medulla. 



The circulatory system has closed vessels with proper walls, and 

 there would seem to be no lacunae ; the stomach is richly provided 

 with blood-vessels, and there is a pair of transverse vessels in each 

 segment, which are, for the greater part of the body, eminently con- 

 tractile. The blood is more or less red. 



At the time of sexual maturity, the hinder part of the body of the 

 male is whitish, and that of the female brownish-yellow in colour ; 

 the ova or sperm fill up the space between the intestine and the sides 

 of the segments, but the generative products of one segment are pre- 

 vented by the completely developed septa from making their way into 

 another segment. The ova arise in a cellular tissue which lies near 

 those vessels which intervene between the walls of the intestine and 

 those of the body ; the ova do not break away till they are completely 

 matured, and they then do not, as in some other Annelids, float freely 



* See this Journal, ante, p, 44. 



