364 Remarks on Dracunculus. 



respects the same. We have represented these distinctions 

 Figs. 1, 2, 3. Plate x, because it is desirable to know whe- 

 ther they are sexual, as they are supposed to be, or whether 

 they may not be characteristic of different species. The 

 oral extremity, or that in which the mouth is situated, is re- 

 presented, Fig. 4 b. c. from the only instance in which I 

 observed it. I may here remark, that it is the radiations by 

 which the mouth is surrounded, and the low organization 

 of these animals, that induced Cuvier to remove them so far 

 from the earth worms, which are further distinguished from 

 Dracunculus by red blood, a semblance of a skeleton in the 

 circular rings by which the body is surrounded, as well 

 as by a distinct nervous system. 



To return to the consideration of the tail, which from 

 being the part that seems generally, if not always, to present 

 itself under the skin, is that with which we are best acquaint- 

 ed. On separating the body within three inches of the extre- 

 mity, a bluish white fluid escaped. This on having been 

 accidentally touched by a Codrington lens proved to consist 

 almost entirely of young animals perfectly formed, and in all 

 respects like their parent, except indeed that they displayed 

 more energy and life. The number of young contained in 

 a single drop of this fluid must at least have been a 

 thousand. When immersed in a drop of water they seem- 

 ed to live so long as their mucous envelope continued 

 attached to them, but when exposed to the water they soon 

 died. Near the caudal extremity there are certain irregular 

 openings, probably connected with the generative functions, 

 or with the state of development of the young, particularly 

 as these apertures are not observed in all specimens ; figs. 1, 

 3, are possessed of them, and figs. 2, 4, are without them. It 

 is right however to say, that they may have been occasioned 

 by violence in the two first mentioned specimens, otherwise 

 we should be inclined to refer the circumstance of the 

 caudal extremity always presenting to the surface, where it 



