PHARYNGEAL GLAND-CELLS OF EARTHWORMS. 
255 
The matter is best left undecided at present.” The projecting 
lobules on the dorsum of the pharynx Claparede called 
“ ganglia of the previously described pharyngeal plexus.” 
Vejdovsky’s own account of the pharyngeal cells is not 
very clear, and is interpolated here and there amongst 
descriptions of the muscular and vascular apparatus of the 
pharynx, and of the occurrence and mechanism of its extrusion. 
Unlike Claparede, who recognised the identity of the cells of 
the lobules with those which penetrate inwards between the 
muscular strands (interpreting both as nervous), Vejdovsky 
considers them as distinct. Those which penetrate inwards 
he looks on simply as cellular elements of the coelomic fluid, 
which become attached to the pharyngeal muscles as to other 
organs ; and he makes the rather surprising statement that 
“ had Claparede compared these cells with those suspended 
in the coelomic fluid, he would certainly have recognised them 
as the latter.” The projecting lobules, on the other hand, 
are interpreted as mucous glands (Schleimdrusen) ; in vertical 
sections the glandular masses, contracting anteriorly to form 
long ducts, wind between the muscular bundles of the 
pharynx, and most probably empty their secretion into the 
pharyngeal cavity ; these glands extend backwards far into 
oesophageal segments, and correspond to the septal or mucous 
glands of other Oligochseta. Vejdovsky also describes the 
ducts of the “septal glands” of Criodrilus as winding 
through the layer of muscular and vascular tissue on the 
dorsum of the pharynx, and the exceptionally large and 
numerous mucous glands of Dendrobaena rubida are said 
to consist each of a pear-shaped mass of cells with large 
round nuclei and containing a substance which stains deeply 
in picrocarmine. 
Vogt and Yung ( 10 , 1888) describe irregularly dispersed 
cells between the muscular fibres on the dorsum of the 
pharynx (in Lumbricus agricola). These cells have ill- 
defined outlines, a granular protoplasm, and a clear spherical 
nucleus containing a nucleolus. The authors refer to 
Claparede’s interpretation of them as nerve cells ; they 
