$ 259. THE CEPHALOPODA. 297 
which it is seen of a milk-white color. Its posterior extremity is attached, 
by a short, small ligament, to a kind of piston which forms the anterior por- 
tion of the projectile apparatus. © 
This piston is a solid, cylindrical body, continuous behind with a spiral 
ligament which is contained in a thin sheath extending to the posterior 
extremity of the tube, in a fold of which it terminates.” 
The Spermatophores are evidently formed in the upper glandular portion of 
the deferent canal, where droplets of sperm are often seen arranged in rows, 
and, at first, appear surrounded by simple, colorless envelopes; these, as 
they advance in the Vas deferens, gradually resemble more and more the. 
perfect Spermatophores. 
Those found in the Bursa Needhamii are always regularly arranged, and. 
sometimes form, lengthwise, several superposed layers. Their anterior 
extremities always point forwards, and not unfrequently their posterior: 
ends are bound together by long, flattened, interlaced filaments. These- 
Spermatophores are in the highest degree hygroscopic : they absorb liquids 
very quickly, and then their posterior extremity bursts, allowing the escape- 
of the compressed spiral ligament together with its sheath, and the piston, . 
which draws with it the sperm-sac to which it is attached.” 
The projection of the seminal sacs occurs, most probably, at the moment 
when, during coition, the Spermatophores pass from the penis of the male 
into the sac of the mouth of the female. A true intromission of the penis 
into the female genital opening, appears impossible with these animals, so 
that coition consists only in a simple juxtaposition of the genital organs. 
‘The fecundation of the eggs should occur very early — while the eggs are 
2 Needham (An account of some new Microscop= 
ical Discoveries, London, 1745, or Nouv. découv. 
faites avec le Microsc. Leyde, 1747, Pl. III. IV.), 
was the first who described accurately the Sper- 
matophores of Loligo vulgaris. With those of 
the Loligina, the posterior extremity is enlarged, 
with one or two constrictions, and contains the 
spiral ligament with its sheath; the piston also, 
from its deep-brown color, is easily seen; see Krohn, 
in Froriep’s neue Notiz. XII. 1839, p. 17, fig. 20 
(Sepia); Milne Edwards, Ann. d. Sc. Nat. XVIII. 
1842, p. 335, Pl. XII. fig. 1-5, XID. fig. 1-6 
(Loligo and Sepia); Peters, in Miiller’s Arch. 
1842, p. 334, Taf. XVI. fig. 11 (Sepiola). With 
those of Octopus, and Eledone, the posterior en- 
largement is very slight, and often, at this point, 
the envelope is entirely involuted ; the seminal sac, 
moreover, is remarkable from its spiral form ; see 
Miine Edwards, loc. cit. p. 338, Pl. XIII. fig. 
8-10, XIV. fig. 1-6 (Octopus and Eledone) ; 
Philippi, in Miller's Arch. 1839, p. 301, Taf. XV. 
fig. 1-6 (Eledone); this last author has erroneously 
taken the spiral turns of the ligament for hooks 
pointing backwards. 
3 Redi (De Animalculis vivis que in corporibus 
animalium vivorum reperiuntur, Lugd. Batav. 1729, 
p. 252, Tab. II. fig. 2), was the first who saw 
these Spermatophores ; but he took them for worms. 
Swammerdamm, on the other hand (Bib. d. Natur, 
p. 353, Taf. LIL. fig. 6, 7), and especially Needham 
loc. cit.), had a correct idea of their nature, for 
they regarded the white substance they contained 
as sperm, and the Spermatophores themselves as a 
kind of cases or machines. But this did not pre 
vent the later anatomists from regarding them ag 
parasites. Thus Delle Chiaje described those of 
Octopus and Sepia under the names of Monosto- 
mum octopodis, and Scolex dibothrius (Mem. IV. 
p. 53, Tav. LV. fig. 8, 14, 9, 9.4). Even latterly, this 
naturalist has not relinquished this opinion, for he 
has figured anew, as an Entozoa, and even as an 
Echinorhynchus, the uncoiled Spermatophores of 
Loligo (Descriz. III. 1841, p. 138, Tav. XI. fig. 
12, 13). Wagner, also, formerly regarded those - 
of Sepia as containing an Echinorhynchus, and 
has figured as such the piston with the spiral liga- 
ment in a rudimentary state (Lebrb. d. vergleich, 
Anat. 1835, p. 312, and Miller’s Arch. 1836, p. 
230, Taf. IX. fig. B. C.). 
Carus went even still further, and described the 
Spermatophores as gigantic spermatic animals un- 
der the name of Needhamia expulsoria ; and re- 
garded the parts they contained, such as the 
sperm-sac, the piston, the spiral ligament, &c., as 
a colon, a small intestine, a stomach, a crop, and 
an cesophagus (Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. XIX. I. 
1839, p. 3, Tab. I., and Erliuterungstaf. loc. cit. 
Hit. V. 1840, p. 4, Taf. I. fig. 10). It was not until 
1839, a time when severai naturalists were con- 
vinced of the presence of spermatic particles in the 
sperm-sac, that the true nature of these bodies was. 
fully understood ; see Philippi, in Miuller’s Arch. 
1839, p. 301; Krohn, in Froriep’s neue Notiz.. 
XII. 1839, p. 17; Siebold, Beitrage z. Natur- 
geschichte d. wirbell. Thiere, 1839, p. 51; Peters, in 
Muller’s Arch. 1840, p. 98, and Milne Edwards, 
Ann. d. Sc. Nat. XIII. 1840, p. 1938. Leuckart 
(Zool. Bruchstticke, Hft. II. 1841, p. 93) has given 
the history and criticism of the opinions relating to 
the sperm machines of Needham. 
4 Aristotle (Hist. Animal. lib. V. cap. 5) had 
already declared that the Cephalopoda copulate by 
a kind of embrace. From the observations of Le- 
bert and Robin (loc. cit. p. 135, and Ann. d. Sc. 
Nat. IV. 1845, p. 95, Pl. IX. fig. 5, 6), it would 
appear that the males do not deposit the spermatic 
particles further in than the cavity of the mantle 
of the females; for they observed, with a female 
Loligo, numerous Spermatophores glued to the 
internal surface of this cavity, near the oviduct. 
