262 
FRANK E. BEDDARD. 
merits of this Pericliaeta, particularly those which contain 
the spermathecse, the nephridial system consists of an enormous 
mass of tubules which almost completely fills the available part 
of the coelom. So closely are the excretory tubules packed 
that I have found it impossible to distinguish a series of sepa- 
rate nephridia corresponding to the numerous external pores. 
This fact, together with the perforation of the septum by 
tubules, led me to the impression that there must be in this 
region of the body a continuous nephridial network 
independent of the segments. 
It occurred to me while making these observations, and it 
has occurred to me lately after discovering the ciliated funnels 
of P. aspergillum, that the supposed connection between the 
nephridial system of two adjacent segments might be really 
nothing more than the normal perforation of the septa by 
tubules, terminating on the anterior side of the septum in 
ciliated funnels. 
This supposition, however, appears to be negatived by the 
following considerations: In the first place I succeeded in 
many cases in tracing a given tubule through the septum until 
it became lost in the excretory mass of the segment in front. 
Secondly, in the posterior region of the body the ciliated 
funnels are usually not borne upon the anterior face of the 
mesenteries in the way that is so general among Earthworms, 
though this sometimes happens. In most cases the long 
straight tube bearing the funnels rises up from a tuft of tubules, 
and does not perforate the septum, but ends in the same seg- 
ment. Thirdly, it occasionally happens, both in the anterior 
and in the posterior region of the body, that a mesentery was 
perforated at one spot by a number of tubules running close 
together in irregular windings. Such masses of nephridial 
tubules did not pass between the individual muscular fibres of 
the septum, but the continuity of the tissues of the septum was 
broken at the point where they traversed it. A conspicuous 
gap was thus formed, which was entirely occupied by the 
nephridial tubules and peritoneal cells coating them. In these 
cases it appeared to me that the bundle of tubules passing 
