APPENDIX. 213c 



chamber (his region glandulaire de la trompe) roll forward into the reservoir, and find exit singly 

 into the muscular cavity (e in our figures) behind the floor of the anterior chamber, and which 

 the author actually represents without comment. Moreover, that afterwards they passed into the 

 cavity of the anterior chamber by the aperture for the central stylet. With regard to his 

 discussion concerning the venomous nature of the fluid in the reservoir, I would not, for my part, 

 say that it is poisonous. It is clear, from the minute anatomy of the organ, that the fluid cannot 

 enter a wound inflicted by the stylet until the latter is withdrawn ; and, as stated previously 

 (p. 62), the proboscis is a somewhat precarious aggressive weapon. The jerking movements 

 observed by the French author in the protruded proboscis are common enough in a structure so 

 muscular and mobile, but they may be explained otherwise than on the supposition of attacking 

 prey. My experience of the organs in the Anopla, also, does not coincide with his observation 

 that they subserve the same function, viz. the secretion of poison. Neither has anything been 

 observed to support the view that other marine animals, such as Crustacea, manifest great repug- 

 nance to the Nemerteans, nor is it probable that nature furnished the latter with cilia (in lieu of 

 urticating organs) to warn their fellows of their deadly approach. 



The author admits that he has only imperfectly examined the organs of circulation, a fact 

 apparent from his remark (and figure) that a central dorsal vessel springs from the middle of 

 the cephalic arch at the tip of the snout. As formerly shown (p. 79), the dorsal vessel arises 

 from the two lateral — by the anastomotic — behind the ganglia. 



He indicates the discovery of a curious species, having small clear processes like buckles in 

 its cutis, and analogous to the bodies in the muscles of Echinoderms ; hence he calls it Borlasia 

 ecliinoderma. The basal apparatus of the central stylet in this species is truncate posteriorly, as 

 in Prosorhochmus Claparedii. Some interesting details are given of its nervous system, amongst 

 others the curious fact that the first eleven pairs of lateral nerves (from the great lateral trunks) 

 go to a series of eyes furnished with refracting globules. The anterior eyes are supplied, as usual, 

 by branches from the ganglia. 



The paper concludes with an account of the reproductive organs of Borlasia Kefersteinii. 

 The statement that on attaining full development the ova and spermatozoa burst their envelopes 

 and escape into the " general cavity of the body" is not in accordance with our observa- 

 tions. The apertures along the sides, which the author failed to see in this small species, 

 render such a supposition unnecessary, though, of course, not impossible. His asking if, 

 like Keferstein, we are to consider the cephalic sacs and " fossettes cephaliques" the channels 

 whereby the reproductive products are expelled, is not in keeping with a thorough knowledge of 

 the subject. In the viviparous Prosorhochmus Claparedii even the largely developed young are 

 confined to certain definite spaces in the body of the parent, but their actual mode of exit 

 in this species is still involved in obscurity. It is to be remembered in connection with the 

 subject that in Nemertes carcinqphila, also occasionally a viviparous species, the sexes are 

 separate. 



The author's allusion to the literature of the subject is meagre, and though several of his 

 views are nearly identical with, or modifications of, those promulgated long ago by his distin- 

 guished countryman, M. de Quatrefages, he does not even mention his name. The plate of 

 figures accompanying the paper is considerably behind date in accuracy. 



An important memoir (an abstract of which has only been published) in connection with the 

 homologies of the subject is that f On the Anatomy and Histology of the Land-Planarians of 



