452 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
specimen, which I owe to the kindness of Professor A. G. Bourne ; 
the specimen was brought from Naples, and has been excellently 
preserved by means of perchloride of mercury. 
One of the earliest writers on the structure of earthworms — Duges — 
has left a valuable paper* on the anatomy and systematic characters 
of those species of Lumbricus which he was able to obtain in Prance. 
He distinguishes six separate species of Lumbricus as occurring in 
that country; but it is at present quite impossible to state how far 
his systematic determinations are of value. The whole subject wants 
to be gone into afresh with the help of anatomy, and until that is 
done there can be no real attempt to classify the species of Lum- 
bricus, as well as to decide how far the generic characters adopted 
by Eisen are of value. 
Of the species described by Duges two appear, so far as I can judge, 
to approach very nearly the species described in the present paper. 
These are Lumbricus gigas and L. complanatus. The structure of 
both species is very closely similar to that of my own species, but 
the external characters of the latter correspond more with those of 
L. complanatus. 
The anatomy of L. gigas is described in some detail, and the 
descriptions are illustrated by a number of figures. There are, of 
course, numerous statements in the paper which require correction 
in the light of more recent knowledge ; the spermathecse are spoken 
of as testes, and the testes themselves, or rather the vesiculse, are 
generally denominated ovaries, and their ducts oviducts. The canal 
which Duges figures as connecting the spermathecse has not, as far 
as modern investigations go, any existence. Another figure illus- 
trates with sufficient accuracy the two vasa deferentia funnels, their 
ducts uniting into a common vas deferens ; the “ testes ” are shown 
as being in continuity with the margins of the funnels, so that it 
is evident that in this species, as in others of Lumbricus , the testicu- 
lar sacs are not the true testes, but merely a mass of spermatozoa in 
various stages of development, enclosed in a sac-like structure which 
is simply an outgrowth of the margins of the vas deferens funnel. 
The main point of interest in connection with these figures is the 
presence of four distinct vesiculee seminales, and no less than seven 
copulatory pouches on each side of the body. 
* Annales d. Sciences Nat., t. xv. (1828), p. 286, pis. viii., ix. 
