679 
of Edinburgh, Session 1885-86. 
fied nepliridia, have at any rate acquired a close secondary connec- 
tion with the generative glands ; the anatomical difference between 
the generative ducts in the Leeches and Platyhelminthes on the 
one hand, and the Oligochseta on the other, is a fact worthy of note, 
even if it does not express a profound morphological difference. In 
Eudrilus the materials at my disposal do not enable me to make 
any statements respecting the morphology of the oviducts ; but their 
continuity with the ovary, whether merely secondary or fundamental, 
is an important fact in their anatomy, and is comparable to the 
structure of the oviduct in Hirudo* or in the Platyhelminthes. 
Indeed, the whole arrangement of the female generative apparatus, 
with the stout muscular vagina, the spermathecal pouch, and the 
accessory gland opening into the vagina, is by no means unlike the 
conditions met with in certain Gastropoda. Without wishing to 
push this latter comparison too far, I may insist upon the undoubted 
resemblance to the Hirudinea and Platyhelminthes, particularly to 
the former group. 
The tendency of recent research has been rather against regarding 
the Hirudinea as Annelida, and their numerous points of affinity 
with the Platyhelminthes have been pointed out by Lang, Bourne, 
and others ; it is, therefore, important to observe that, as far as the 
female generative organs are concerned, there is a decided resem- 
blance between Eudrilus and Hirudo , and this fact keeps to bridge 
over the gap which separates the Leeches from the Chaetopoda. It 
also follows that the structure of the genital glands and their ducts 
is not constant in the Oligochseta, as it is generally believed to be ; 
and on this account it is not permissible to lay too great stress upon 
the relations between the genital glands and their ducts in classifi- 
cation (as also in the case of the Ganoid and Teleostean fish). 
In every respect, with the exception of the ovaries and their ducts, 
Eudrilus conforms very closely to the structure of other earth- 
worms ; and in view of these striking resemblances of structure, the 
condition of the ovaries and oviducts can hardly be regarded as being 
of such importance as to separate Eudrilus from other Oligochseta. 
In Lumbricus the ovary terminates in a slender process, which was 
* It has been recently shown by bTussbaum ( Zool . Anz., Bd. viii. p. 184) that 
the oviducts of the Leech are primitively independent of the ovary, and only 
later acquire a connection with it. 
