XXXII 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF THE BRA- 



CHIOPODA 



Roy. Soc. Proc, vol. vtL, 1854-55, pp. 106-117, 241-242 



In the course of the dissection of certain Brachiopoda with which 

 I have recently been engaged, I have met with so many peculiarities 

 which are unnoticed in the extant and received accounts of their 

 anatomy, that although the pressure of other duties prevents me from 

 attempting to work out the subject with any degree of completeness 

 for the present, I yet gladly avail myself of the opportunity of com- 

 municating a few of the more important results at which I have 

 arrived, in the hope that they may find a place in the Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society. 



My investigations were principally made upon Rhynchonella psit- 

 tacea, for specimens of which I am indebted to Prof Edward Forbes, 

 while Dr. Gray obligingly enabled me to compare them with Wald- 

 heimia flavescens and with Lingula. 



I. The Alimentary Canal of Tcrebratulidce. — Professor Owen, in 

 both his earlier and his later memoirs on the anatomy of the Tere- 

 bratulidae, describes at length the manner in which the intestine, as 

 he states, terminates on the right side between the lobes of the 

 mantle. 



On the other hand, Mr. Hancock has declared himself unable to 

 observe at this point any such anal aperture, and concludes from his 

 own observations that the latter is situated on the ventral surface of 

 the animal in the middle line, just behind the insertion of the great 

 adductor muscle. M. Gratiolet, in a late communication to the 

 Academie des Sciences, takes the same view. To get rid of the ob- 

 vious difficulty, that this spot is covered by the shell, and therefore 

 that if the anus existed here, there would be no road of escape for 



