TEICHOCEPHALUS. 75 



copulatory act. These statements," adds Dr. Ebertli, " are not 

 correct ; the villi of tlie vagina are larger than the spines of the 

 male, and their points on the contrary are directed forwards." It 

 thus appears evident that our little spines are very different from 

 the curious villi discovered by Dr. Eberth, unless, indeed, his 

 description be altogether inaccurate ; an assumption which we are 

 scarcely at hberty to entertain. Both in T. clispar and T. ajfinis 

 the vaginal orifice is placed at the upper part of the body just 

 before it becomes narrowed to form the long neck, and the opening 

 leads directly into a single capacious uterine sac, which passes 

 downwards to within a little distance from the tail. In this situa- 

 tion it becomes suddenly narrowed, bends upon itself so as to form 

 a tortuous ovarian tube, which, passing upwards to a point below 

 the vaginal orifice, again returns to pursue a similar serpentine 

 course, finally terminating in a free, narrow, tubular coecal filament. 

 In regard to the male reproductive apparatus, the testis com- 

 mences by a bluntly-pointed coecal sac, bent upon itself and situated 

 a little above the caudal region. This sac passes upwards in a 

 tortuous manner as far as the true stomach, where it suddenly 

 retraces its course, becoming still more dilated. Its final mode of 

 termination I have not myself independently made out, but Wilson, 

 whose descriptions are generally very accurate, observes : — " At 

 about the union of the anterior with the middle third of the abdo- 

 men, this sac contracts into a thick fleshy sphincter valve, and is 

 there continued onwards as a large tube, with thick and fleshy 

 walls to near the extremity of the tail, where it becomes narrower, 

 and terminates by a small opening in the intestine." In regard to 

 the intromittent organ, it may next be remarked that in the 

 retracted condition it is to a very great extent independent of the 

 essential organs just described, for its surrounding sheath is only 

 embraced by the cloacal or intestinal tube a little above the caudal 

 outlet. In the exserted condition, however, the sheath and the 

 spiculum are both included within the cloacal cavity. The remark- 

 able length of the penis and its membranous sheath is characteristic 



