1887.] Mr Frank E. Beddard on Earthworms. 167 
the external orifice, Perrier remarks {hoc. cit., p. 460) : — “ En 
faisant des coupes dans la region anterieure du corps, nous avous 
constamment rencontre dans l’epaisseur meme des teguments un 
canal circulaire entoure d’une sorte de sphincter et presentant des 
cils vibratiles tres-reconaissables meme sur des individus desseches. 
Nous avions d’abord pense que nous avions sous les yeux la coupe 
de la portion du canal excreteur des glandes a mucosite qui est logee 
dans les teguments ; mais nous n’avons pu nous convaincre de l’in- 
exactitude [exactitude?] de cette appreciation. Dans nos coupes ce 
canal s’est toujours montre unique, et les glandes a mucosite ont 
des orificies excreteurs distincts ; de plus, le canal en question nous a 
paru occuper la partie la plus anterieure du corps ; et ces faits sont 
contraires a la supposition qui nous etait d’abord venue k l’esprit.” 
If M. Perrier means to state in the above-quoted words that the 
excretory duct of tlie “ glande a mucosite ” is furnished at its 
termination with a “sphincter” like that which surrounds the 
aperture of the nephridia, I am in a position to confirm the correct- 
ness of his statement. By a series of transverse sections, I have 
been able to trace on both sides of the body the duct of this gland 
to its external opening, and I find that the latter is surrounded by 
one of these peculiar bodies which Perrier was the first to record 
in the case of the nephridia. On the other hand, the duct never 
traversed the body walls except, of course, at the point where it 
perforates it on its way to the exterior, and the two ducts were both 
perfectly distinct. M. Perrier does not mention whether the single 
duct which he found in the transverse section was situated laterally 
or in the median line. I cannot detect any trace of cilia in these 
canals, which, indeed seem to be hardly needed, as they are physio- 
logically replaced by the muscular walls. The presence of the 
“ sphincter ” is evidently an important additional resemblance 
between the glandes a mucosite and the nephridia. 
With regard to the nephridia , I am unable to find in my 
species what Perrier states to be the relations of the internal 
funnel in U. corethrurus. He says ( loc . cit., p. 438) — “ Les pavilions 
vibratiles . . . (sont) tres-rapproches de la ligne mediane et appliques 
contre la cloison. II y a la quelque chose de different de ce qu’on 
observe chez les naidiens, ou les pavilions vibratiles traversent en 
general la cloison anterieure de chaque anneau, fait que l’on retrouve 
