$ 223. THE CEFHALOPHORA. 253 
pal pulmonary vein. Its excretory duct accompanies the rectum and 
often opens near the anus.” 
The kidney is nearly always of a dirty yellow, or reddish color, of a 
Jamellated structure, and its surface is wholly without vibratile organs. It 
is surrounded by a sac-like envelope which is continuous with the inter- 
nally ciliated, excretory duct. ach renal lamella is composed of thickly- 
set, delicate cells loosely bound together. In their transparent liquid floats 
an obscure nucleus which, by direct light, appears brown or violet. 
These nuclei, which are round and embossed, have a very dense crystalline 
structure, and are undoubtedly a product of the renal secretion.” Cer- 
tainly they contain the uric acid which is found when the whole gland is 
chemically analyzed.© The ramified canals upon the membranous en- 
velope of the kidneys, return, probably, the blood into the respiratory 
organs. But in the gland itself no blood-vessel has been observed. 
With Sagitta, and the other Pteropoda, nothing like a renal organ has 
yet been found. With the Heteropoda, and Apneusta, on the contrary, 
there are vestiges of certain organs which further researches may show to 
be of a urinary natare.© 
With the Pectinibranchia, the kidney is replaced by a gland which 
is situated behind the branchia, between the heart and liver, and which, in 
some marine species, secretes the purple liquid. 
It is composed of several ramified lamellae, and opens by a large orifice, 
or by a duct of variable length which accompanies the rectum, at the base 
of the branchial cavity. 
With the other branchiated Gasteropoda, the 
existence of this gland is yet doubtful, although with most of them, and 
1 This is the gland which, with the Gasteropoda, 
has been considered by the older anatomists such 
as Swammerdamm, Poli, and Blumenbach, asan 
organ secreting the calcareous salts, and by Cuvier 
as a muciparous gland. 
2 This gland corresponds, consequently, as to its 
position and intimate structure, to the bodies of 
Bojanus, which, with the Lamellibranchia, have 
been considered as kidneys; excepting that they 
have no ciliated organs. For the intimate struc- 
ture of the kidneys of Gasteropoda, see H. Meckel, 
in Miller’s Arch. 1846, p. 13, Taf. I. 
8 Jacobson (Jour. de Physique, XCI. p. 318, or 
Meckel’s Arch. VI. 1820, p. 370) was the first who 
showed the presence of uric acid in this gland, with 
Helix pomatia, and nemoralis, Limax niger, 
Lymnaeus stagnalis, and Planorbis cornea. 
But, 4ome time previous, Dellinger and Wohnlich 
(Diss. de Helice pomatia, Wirceb. 1813, p. 23) had 
regarded this organ as a kidney. The presence of 
uric acid can be easily shown in the dried kidneys 
of Helix pomatia and Paludina vivipara, for 
when treated with nitric acid and ammonia, a con- 
siderable quantity of murexid is disengaged. 
4 According to T'reviranus (Beobacht. aus. d. 
Anat. u. Physiol. p. 39), with Hedix and Arion, a 
portion of the blood of the lungs, instead of going 
to the heart, passes into the kidneys, and thence 
enters the great pulmonary vein. But it must be 
very difficult to show the course of this liquid in 
the interior of the kidneys. 
5 The spongy substance mentioned by Delle 
Chiaje (Descriz. II. p. 96, Tav. LXIII. fig. 3, 
8.) as existing near the heart and at the base of 
the branchiae, with Carinaria, is undoubtedly 
a urinary gland. The long, yellow ciliated body, 
but without excretory organs, which Nordmann 
(loc. cit. p. 24, Taf. II. Q.) observed with Tergipes, 
between the stomach, liver, heart and rectum, is 
also, perhaps, a kidney ; at all events, as such 
cannot be regarded another and neighboring body, 
larger, lobulated and of a yellowish color, having 
apparently an excretory canal opening externally, 
and which already has been mentioned as being an 
hepatic gland. Perhaps a like interpretation 
should also be put upon the yellow bodies observed 
by Quatrefages in the pusterior part of the body 
of Zephyrina, Actaeon, and Amphoring (Aun. a. 
Sc. Nat. £. p. 186, Pl. IV. fig. 1-3). 
6 With T'ritonium, and Murez, this gland 
opens by a large orifice into the cavity of the man- 
tle; see Eysenhardt (Meckel’s Deutsch. Arch. 
VIII. p. 216, Taf. LIL. fig. 4, r.), and Leiblein 
(Heusmser’s Zeitsch. fiir u. urgan. Phys. I. p. 4, 
Taf. I. h. i., or Ann. d. Se. Nat. XIV. 1828, p. 179, 
Pl. X. h.i.). A similar urinary gland has been 
described with Janthina, by Delle Chiaje (De- 
scriz. II. p. 108, Tav. LX VII. fig. 3, e., LXVILL. 
fig. 14, i. 1.), as an accessory respiratory cavity. 
With Paludina, this gland has a quite long ex- 
cretory duct ; see Cuvier, Mém. loc. cit. fig. 3, 1. 7, 
p.q. The kidney has, moreover, been described 
by Cuvier (loc. cit.), and Quoy and Gaimard 
Voy. de l’Astrolabe Zool. II. or, Isis, 1834, p. 285, 
836, p. 31) under the names of Muciparous 
gland, Organ of the purple, and Depurating or- 
gan, with Phasianella, Turbo, Buccinum, Mi- 
tra, Oliva, Capraea, Harpa, Lolium, Cassis, 
Purpura, Fusus, Auricula, &.* 
* [§ 223, note 6.) For the renal organs with Paludina, see Leydig, Ueber Paludina vivipara, &c., 
loc. cit. p. 180, Taf. XIII. fig. 49, 0. — Ep. 
22 
