762 
ME. H. N. MOSELEY ON THE STRUCTURE AND 
its body is very remarkable in Peripatus. When the animal is crawling, the body is 
extended to about twice the length which it has when the animal is at rest. When 
the body is thus fully extended, the digestive tract is probably quite straight, becoming 
looped again when the body is drawn together. The convolutions and folds of the 
stomach do not in any way correspond to the segments of the body. The outer surface 
of the stomach has upon it a pattern composed of small hexagons, which is shown by 
Mr. Wild in the figure. This appearance is caused by the glandular follicles of the 
mucous lining of the organ, which are seen through its outer wall. The glandular 
lining of the stomach has always a light pinkish colour * (in the embryo the digestive 
tract is red). It is very thick, and composed mainly of large cells (Plate LXXIII. 
fig. 3, a ) with a polygonal outline, usually pentagonal, showing a granular structure 
with a distinct nucleus and nucleolus. These cells probably have an hepatic function. 
Besides them there are slime-cells and masses made up of aggregations of small fat- 
particles (Plate LXXIII. figs. 3, b and c) in abundance in the stomach. Vegetable 
cells and portions of woody fibre in small quantity were found in the stomachs of two 
specimens ; and there can thus be little doubt that their food, like that of lulus , is the 
decayed wood amongst which they are so constantly found. The stomachs of several 
specimens were quite empty. It is very possible that the animals feed very little or 
not at all during the breeding-season, but rest, as does lulus according to Newport, at 
the time of the production of the eggs. 
Some very small encysted Gregaringe were found in the stomachs of all the specimens 
examined. 
The separation between the stomach and rectum is marked by the difference of colour 
in the fresh state, the rectum being pink. The alteration in diameter of the tube is 
more sudden in some specimens than in others. 
Slime-glands . — The glands, which are those described by Grube as the testes, are 
present in both sexes; they lie on each side of the digestive tract, and stretch down 
nearly its whole length. The glands are shown in Plate LXXII. fig. 1 , s.g, s.g. They 
consist of a series of elongate ramified tubes, which twist round the stomach in a sort of 
mesh work, and entangle themselves around the male or female generative organs. The 
ramified tubes terminate in ducts, which open one on each side of the body in the tips 
of the oral papillse. Along the greater part of their course these ducts are enlarged 
into wide sacs, which serve to store up the secretion of the gland, and to eject it in 
the form of the viscid thread as already described. These reservoirs or ejaculatory sacs 
(Plate LXXII. fig. 1, e.s) are represented in the figure in a collapsed condition, the 
animal dissected in this instance having been killed by immersion in alcohol vapour, and 
having discharged its store of viscid fluid. When distended the sacs appear as cylin- 
drical bodies, with a tense transparent wall, very like the sacs on the ducts of the salivary 
glands in Blatta and several other Orthoptera. The sacs are provided with spirally 
arranged muscular fibres, disposed in two layers and twisted in opposite directions. 
* Just the colour of the excreta constantly voided by moths immediately after leaving the pupa-case. 
