198 MR FEANK E. BEDDAED ON 



Apart from this matter, the efferent ducts of this worm have an interest. The 

 reduction of the anterior pair of funnels and vasa defercntia suggest a commencing dis- 

 appearance of these ; were they absent, the structure of the reproductive organs would be 

 that of the Tubificidse ; and more especially of my genus Branchiura. In that worm 

 it will be remembered that the atrium is divisible into two regions — apart from the 

 terminal copulatory apparatus. The distal section of the atrium is invested by the 

 prostate ; at the junction of this with the proximal half opens the vas deferens ; this is 

 precisely what we should find in Sutroa; if, that is to say, the anterior pair of vasa 

 deferentia were to disappear. If, on the other hand, the posterior pair of vasa deferentia 

 were to vanish — of which, however, there is no indication — we should get a state of affairs 

 much as is found in the more typical Tubificidse. 



I have suggested that the anterior pair of vas deferens funnels are on the road to 

 disappearance ; the tube itself is very much thinner than the vas deferens connected 

 with the posterior funnel ; the funnel also is in the same way much reduced. The 

 comparatively large funnels which open into segment X, though spread along the 

 septum, are a good deal folded. On the other hand, the funnels which depend into 

 segment IX are perhaps one quarter the size of the following pair, and are not folded. 

 Moreover, these anterior funnels are so far purposeless that there are no testes corre- 

 sponding to them. I searched most carefully for the missing testes of segment IX, but 

 to no purpose. I can therefore at the very least say that the testes if present are very 

 inconspicuous ; indeed, I think that there is very little doubt as to their total absence. 



The testes are fixed by Eisen as occurring in somite X — i.e, in somite XI, according to 

 the more usual enumeration of the segments in Sutroa rostrata; in S. alpestris they are 

 figured (Joe. cit. PL xiv. fig. 1, tes.) as lying in the same segment as that which contains 

 the penis, i.e. the Xth ; they are spoken of as being " large, and deeply and repeatedly 

 lobed." 



I found, on the other hand, that the testes are not lobed in a distinct manner ; they 

 are solid, almost square-shaped organs. But close to them are a pair of peculiar bodies, 

 which are also found in the preceding segment. In the figure referred to as illustrating 

 the reproductive system of the worm the correspondence is clearly shown : I think, there- 

 fore, that Dr Eisen has overlooked the testes, and has confounded with them the peculiar 

 structures already referred to as existing in the Xth as well as in the Xlth segment. 

 These structures are called " albumen glands," and the duct leading to the exterior is 

 figured. I am myself of opinion that these bodies (fig. 6) cannot be regarded as of a 

 glandular nature ; I could find no trace of a duct, and the tissue of which they are com- 

 posed is not suggestive of the glandular tissues met with elsewhere in these Annelids. 



They spring from the septa, and are, as Eisen has pointed out, of a racemose form ; 

 their walls are delicate and muscular ; the contents are loosely packed cells, which are 

 like the ccelomic corpuscles. They are not at all like gland cells. I should be disposed 

 to compare them with the " septal sacs " so often met with in the Perichsetidae and in 

 Acanihodrilus. 



