THE ANATOMY OF AN AUSTRALIAN LAND PLANARIAN. 57 
by these glands.” The same author, however, also speaks of certain ‘“ gland-cells,”’ 
which he describes as large, oval sacs, filled with granular contents ; these, I believe, 
to be also simply masses of hardened mucous, derived, as before, from the glands 
beneath the skin. 1 do not know that there is any evidence, unless it be the 
supposed presence of an investing membrane, for regarding them as cells, and the 
appearance of such a membrane may readily be accounted for by supposing it to be 
the remains of some of the true columnar cells shrunk on to the mass of mucous. 
(B.) Rod-like bodies (Fig. 6, r.) These are narrow, cylindrical rods, commonly found in 
sroups of several together, and very often more or less curved. They appear very dark 
in colour, partly because they take the stain well, and partly because they are 
naturally of a very dark colour, owing to the pigment contained in them. They are 
seen in vertical sections in various positions on their way out from the special zone 
of rod-like bodies to the outside of the body, where they occur in great abundance in 
the layer of mucous which immediately clothes the epidermis. I shall give a fuller 
account of these bodies in the proper place ; meantime I may observe that they are 
doubtless homologous with the rod-like bodies described by Moseley in Bzfalium, 
although presenting certain points of difference which will be best understood by 
referring to his original paper. (6) 
Epiderims of the Ventral Surface.—The transition between the epidermis of the 
lateral and ventral surfaces takes place quite suddenly, on each side of the body, 
along the line of junction between the dark olive green colour of the dorsal surface 
with the bright cobalt blue of the ventral. 
The epidermis on the ventral surface, as has been already indicated, does not 
form nearly such a thick layer as it does on the dorsal and lateral surfaces. It is 
composed of closely packed, nucleated, rather short columnar cells, each bearing a 
large number of short cilia on its outer surface. Three of these cells are represented 
in figure 5, where it will be seen that the delicate bodies of the cells have shrunk 
away from one another in the preparation, so as to leave wide gaps between. Deeply 
staining blocks of mucous are frequently met with, wedged in between the cells, but 
rod-like bodies are not nearly so abundant as on the dorsal surface, though I believe 
they occur in small numbers, and their presence may naturally be inferred from the 
fact that the special zone of rod-like bodies, as I shall show subsequently, is continued 
ventrally. 
Thus it appears that the epidermis of the land Planarians consists of a layer of 
nucleated columnar cells, which, on the ventral surface at any rate, are abundantly 
ciliated. The true structure of the epidermis is, however, greatly obscured by the 
presence of numerous rod-like bodies and blocks of mucous wedged in between the cells, 
and especially abundant on the dorsal surface. Moseley (6) appears to have mistaken 
these two kinds of bodies for the real epidermal elements, and to have overlooked the 
columnar cells. He states, however, that ‘‘Max Schultze found cuticular cells 
