672 
Proceedings of the Eoyal Society 
will undoubtedly render great service to those who require to use 
wool for the higher branches of textile manufacture. 
4. On the Comparison of the Intensity of Gravity at 
different Stations. By Professor Tait. 
5. On the Reproductive Organs in the Genus Eudrilus , 
E.P. By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to 
the Zoological Society of London. (Plate XXV.) 
Among the many interesting genera of earthworms described by 
M. Perrier, the most interesting and remarkable in many ways is 
Eudrilus. This genus is unique among earthworms, by reason of 
the peculiar structure of its generative organs. In all earthworms 
at present known, with this exception,* the ovaries are situated in 
a distinct segment of their own, into which opens the funnel of the 
oviduct, which is quite independent of the ovary ; the oviducts 
generally pass through the mesentery which bounds posteriorly the 
segment (usually the 13th) containing the ovaries, and open on 
to the exterior of the body in the ventral surface of the following 
segment. 
M. Perrier has described these organs in Eudrilus in the follow- 
ing words ( Nouv . Arch. d. Mus., t. viii., 1872, p. 74) : — “L’appareil 
femelle n’est pas moins etrange. II est situe dans le quatorzieme 
anneau et son orifice exterieure n’est pas autre chose que l’orifice 
porte par cet anneau en avant de la paire superieure de soies. On 
voit partir de cet orifice un tube qui se recourbe plusieurs fois, en se 
dirigeant en arriere, se renfle finalement en une poche allongee a 
parois plus ou moins distendues et dont l’extremite en cul-de-sac se 
dirige en avant. Greffes sur ce tube avant sa dilatation en poche 
on voit d’abord un tube plus petit entortille de fagons diverses, et 
juste en face de lui une sphere assez peu volumineuse, quelquefois 
deux, qui presentent alors un aspect un peu different. Je n’ai 
pu examiner ce dernier corps que sur deux individus conserves 
dans l’alcohol, mais cette examen ne peut laisser 
aucun doute ; ce sont la des ovaires dans lesquels il est encore 
* Moniligaster appears to be somewhat abnormal in the size and position of 
the ovaries ; but there is no fundamental difference from other Oligochseta. 
