502 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



large number of follicles of various ages. These, which may be looked 

 upon as evaginations of the tunica propria, all contain an egg, more or 

 less developed, but the ova are always of small size until they make 

 their way into the uterus, which then attain their full size and 

 development. In the immature female the uterus is only apparent 

 as a slight outpushing of the oviduct, but at the period of maturity it 

 becomes turgescent, swells out, and occupies a large portion of the 

 body-cavity ; it is provided with a powerful layer of circular muscular 

 fibres, and its inner surface is lined with cells, similar in character to 

 those of the vas deferens. The terminal portion of the vagina is 

 surrounded by a system of chitinous rings ; the ovipositor, like the 

 penis, is surrounded by two sheaths, which are essentially of the same 

 structure in all the species. 



The two glands at the lateral margins of the cephalothorax have 

 been regarded by Loman as stink-glands ; the author finds that in 

 Opilio albescens there is an aromatic odour, which he ascribes to 

 these organs. 



Scent-glands of the Scorpion-spiders (Thelyphonus).*— The re- 

 markable Arachnidan genus Thelyphonus is confined in its distribution 

 to South America and Southern Asia and their islands. Of its 

 internal anatomy nothing but the nervous system is known. The 

 French zoologist Lucas states that the Thelyphoni are called Vinai- 

 griers by the inhabitants of Martinique, on account of the strong 

 vinegary odour which they emit when touched or handled. Stoliczka, 

 who examined living specimens of one of the Indian species, states 

 that a peculiar but inodorous fluid issues from two internal pyloric (!) 

 appendages. These Arachnids, according to Lucas, live in damp 

 places under stones on tbe ground. Stoliczka and Mr. Peal found 

 them beneath the bark of decayed trees in groups. 



Mr. J. Wood-Mason, who has undertaken an investigation of their 

 anatomy, was only able to obtain specimens for dissection during the 

 heaviest rain, when all vegetation and the ground is saturated with 

 water, and the animals come forth from their holes in the rocks. He 

 found that death quickly followed their removal from their humid 

 haunts, air saturated with moisture being apparently necessary for the 

 due performance of their respiratory functions. All the specimens 

 he met with emitted, when touched, a most powerful and lasting 

 odour, exactly like that of a highly concentrated essence of pears, 

 which when deeply inspired had all the characteristic smell and pun- 

 gency of strong acetic acid. This odour did not emanate from the 

 general surface of the body, but proceeded from a pellucid fluid which 

 exudes from the neighbourhood of the anus and is secreted by special 

 glands. These are paired and tubular organs of huge size, extending 

 from the nineteenth somite of the body (on which they open by two 

 minute valvular apertures placed at the sides of the anus) to the front 

 end of the thirteenth in the male, but to the middle of the eleventh in 

 the female (whose glands are consequently the larger), and being, 

 with the exception of the voluminous liver, the most conspicuous of 

 the viscera. They are two subpellucid bags, shaped somewhat like 



* Proc. A&iatic Soc. Bengal, 1882, pp. 59-60. 



