A XXXXX AS t Si 'v£_ i si, 1 si a y Wm W» W* M* W + flrXtttraut^ % \\J .:. H :;:H;:; ? ■ -O'i ii .= : /< ;" ■■■• i 'i;:,00n;.- I® It*"!' I ~*l *>£: THOMAS H. HUXLEY'S WORKS. Collected Essays. Vol. i. Method and Results. " 2. Darwiniana. " 3. Science and Education. " 4. Science and Hebrew Tradition. " 5. Science and Christian Tradition. " 6. Hume. " 7. Man's Place in Nature. " 8. Discourses, Biologicaland Geological. " 9. Evolution and Ethics, and Other Essays. nmo. Cloth, $1.25 per volume. The Crayfish : An Introduction to the Study of Zoology. With 82 Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals. Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $2.50. Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals. Illustrated, nmo. Cloth, $2.50. Physiography : An Introduction to the Study of Nature. With Illustrations and Colored Plates, nrao. Cloth, $2. 50. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. A MANUAL OF THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. BY THOMAS H. HUXLEY, LL. D., F. R. S. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 72 FIFTH AVENUE. 1901. PBEFACE. The present volume on the Anatomy of Invert ebrated Animals fulfills an undertaking to produce a treatise on comparative anatomy for students, into which I entered two-and-twenty years ago. A considerable installment of the work, relating wholly to the Invertebrate, appeared in the Medical Times and Gazette for the years 1856 and 1857, under the title of " Lectures on General Natural History.' 1 But a variety of circumstances having con- spired, about that time, to compel me to direct my atten- tion more particularly to the Vertebrata, I was led to in- terrupt the publication of the " Lectures " and to com- plete the Vertebrate half of the proposed work first. This appeared in 1871, as a " Manual of the Anatomy of Verte- brated Animals." A period of incapacity for any serious toil prevented me from attempting, before 1874, to grapple with the im- mense mass of new and important information respecting the structure, and especially the development, of Inverte- brated animals, which the activity of a host of investiga- tors has accumulated of late vears. That my progress has been slow will not surprise any one who is acquainted with the growth of the literature of animal morphology, or with the expenditure of time involved in the attempt to verify for one's self even the cardinal facts of that science ; but I have endeavored, in 4 PREFACE. the last chapter, to supply the most important recent ad- ditions to our knowledge, respecting the groups treated of in those which have long been printed. "When I commenced this work, it was my intention to continue the plan adopted in the " Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals," of giving a summary account of what appeared to me to be ascertained morphological facts, without referring to my sources of information. I soon found, however, that it would be inconvenient to carry out this scheme consistently ; and some of my pages are, I am afraid, somewhat burdened with notes and ref- erences. I am the more careful to mention this circumstance as, had it been my purpose to give any adequate Bibliography, the conspicuous absence of the titles of many important books and memoirs might appear unaccountable and in- deed blameworthy. My object, in writing the book, has been to make it useful to those who wish to become acquainted with the broad outlines of what is at present known of the morphol- ogy of the Invertebrata / though I have not avoided the incidental mention of facts connected with their physiol- ogy and their distribution. On the other hand, I have ab- stained from discussing questions of aetiology, not because I underestimate their importance, or am insensible to the interest of the great problem of Evolution ; but because, to my mind, the growing tendency to mix up setiological speculations with morphological generalizations will, if unchecked, throw Biology into confusion. For the student, that which is essential is a knowledge of the facts of morphology ; and he should recollect that generalizations are empty formulas, unless there is some- thing in his personal experience which gives reality and substance to the terms of the propositions in which these generalizations are expressed. PREFACE. 5 The dissection of a single representative of each of the principal divisions of the Invertebrata will give the student a more real acquaintance with their comparative anatomy than any amount of reading of this, or any other book. And I have endeavored to facilitate practical study by supplying a somewhat full description of individual forms, in the case of the more complicated types. That the power of repeating a " Classification of Ani- mals," with all the appropriate definitions, has anything to do with genuine knowledge is one of the commonest and most mischievous delusions of both students and their examiners. The real business of the learner is to gain a true and vivid conception of the characteristics of what may be termed the natural orders of animals. The mode of ar- rangement, or classification, of these into larger groups is a matter of altogether secondary importance. As such, I have relegated this subject to a subordinate place in the last chapter ; and I have thought it unnecessary, either to discuss the systems proposed by others, or to give reasons for passing over, in silence, my own former attempts in this direction. Of the manifold imperfections in the execution of the task which I have set myself, few will be more sensible than I am ; but I trust that the book, such as it is, may be of use to the beginner. Those who desire to pursue the study of the Inverte- Irata further will do well to consult the excellent treatises of Yon Siebold, 1 Gegenbaur, 2 and Clans ; 3 and the elabo- 1 " Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie der wirbellosen Thiere," 1848. One of the best books on the subject ever written, and still indispensable. 2 " Grundzuge der vergleichenden Anatomie," 1870 ; and " Gnmdriss der vergleichenden Anatomie," 1874. 3 " Grundziige der Zoologie." 3tte Auflage, 1876. 6 PREFACE. rate works of Milne-Edwards 1 and Bronn, 2 in which a very full Bibliography will be met with. Dr. Rolleston's valuable " Types of Animal Life," and the "Elementary Instruction in Practical Biology," by myself and Dr. Martin, will prove useful adjuncts to the appliances of the practical worker. 1 " Legons sur la Physiologie et l'Anatomie comparee de l'Homme et des Animaux." Tomes i.-xii. (incomplete). 2 " Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Tkierreichs." Bde. i.-vi. (incomplete). London, June, 1877. CONTENTS. ?AGE Preface, 3 Introduction : The General Principles of Biology, . 9 Chap. I. — The Distinctive Characters of Animals, . . . .44 II. — The Protozoa, . . ' 73 III. — The Porifera and the Cgxenterata, 102 * IV. — The Tcrbellaria, the Rotifera, the Trematoda, and the Cestoidea, 157 V. — The Hirudinea, the Oligoch^eta, the Polych^eta, the Gephyrea, 189 YI. — The Arthropoda, 219 VII. — The Air-breathing Arthropoda, 320 VIII. — The Polyzoa, the Brachiopoda, and the Mollusca, . . 389 IX. — The Echinodermata, . 466 X. — The Tunicata or Ascidioida, 510 XI. — The Peripatidea, the Myzostomata, the Enteropneusta, THE CH.ETOGNATHA, THE NeMATOIDEA, THE PHYSEMARIA, THE ACANTHOCEPHALA, AND THE DlCYEMIDA, . . . 534 XT!. — The Taxonomy of Inyertebrated Animals, .... 561 Index, 589 THE ANATOMY OF INVEKTEBKATED ANIMALS. INTRODUCTION. I. — THE GEXEKAL PEIXCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. The biological sciences are those which deal with the phenomena manifested by living matter; and though it is customary and convenient to group apart such of these phe- nomena as are termed mental, aud such of them as are ex- hibited by men in society, under the heads of Psychology and Sociology, yet it must be allowed that no natural boun- dary separates the subject-matter of the latter sciences from that of Biology. Psychology is inseparably linked with Physiology ; and the phases of social life exhibited by ani- mals other than man, which sometimes curiously foreshadow human policy, fall strictly within the province of the biolo- gist. On the other hand, the hiological sciences are sharply marked off from the abiological, or those which treat of the phenomena manifested by not-living matter, in so far as the properties of living matter distinguish it absolutely from all other kinds of things, and as the present state of knowledge furnishes us with no link between the living and the not- livino*. These distinctive properties of living matter are — 1. Its chemical composition — containing, as it invariably does, one or more forms of a complex compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the so-called protein (which has never yet been obtained except as a product of living bodies) united with a large proportion of water, and forming 10 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. the chief constituent of a substance which, in its primary un- modified state, is known as protoplasm. 2. Its universal disintegration and waste by oxidation/ and its concomitant reintegration by the intussusception of neic matter. A process of waste resulting from the decomposition of the molecules of the protoplasm, in virtue of which they break up into more highly-oxidated products, which cease to form any part of the living body, is a constant concomitant of life. There is reason to believe that carbonic acid is al- ways one of these waste products, while the others contain the remainder of the carbon, the nitrogen, the hydrogen, and the other elements which may enter into the composition of the protoplasm. The new matter taken in to make good this constant loss is either a ready-formed protoplasmic material, supplied by some other living being, or it consists of the elements of protoplasm, united together in simpler combinations, which consequently have to be built up into protoplasm by the agency of the living matter itself. In either case, the addi- tion of molecules to those which already existed takes place, not at the surface of the living mass, but by interposition between the existing molecules of the latter. If the processes of disintegration and of reconstruction which characterize life balance one another, the size of the mass of living matter remains stationary, while, if the reconstructive process is the more rapid, the living body grows. But the increase of size w T hich constitutes growth is the result of a process of molec- ular intussusception, and therefore differs altogether from the process of growth by accretion, which may be observed in crystals and is effected purely by the external addition of new matter — so that, in the well-known aphorism of Linnaeus, 1 the word "grow," as applied to stones, signifies a totally dif- ferent process from what is called " growth " in plants and animals. 3. Its tendency to undergo cyclical changes. In the ordinary course of Nature, all living matter proceeds from preexisting living matter, a portion of the latter being detached and acquiring an independent existence. The new form takes on the characters of that from which it arose ; ex- hibits the same power of propagating itself by means of an offshoot ; and, sooner or later, like its predecessor, ceases to 1 " Lapides crescunt: vegetdbilia crescunt et vivunt: animalia crescunt, vi- vunt et sentiunt." CHARACTERS OF LIVING MATTER. H live, and is resolved into more highly-oxidated compounds of its elements. Thus an individual living body is not only constantly changing its substance, but its size and form are undergoing continual modifications, the end of which is the death and decay of that individual ; the continuation of the kind being secured by the detachment of portions which tend to run through the same cycle of forms as the parent. No forms of matter which are either not living, or have not been derived from living matter, exhibit these three properties, nor any approach to the remarkable phenomena defined under the sec- ond and third heads. But, in addition to these distinctive characters, living matter has some other peculiarities, the chief of which are the dependence of all its activities upon moisture and upon heat, within a limited range of tempera- ture, together with the fact that it usually possesses a certain structure, or organization. As has been said, a large proportion of water enters into the composition of all living matter ; a certain amount of dry- ing arrests vital activity, and the complete abstraction of this water is absolutely incompatible with either actual or poten- tial life. But many of the simpler forms of life may undergo desiccation to such an extent as to arrest their vital manifes- tations and convert them into the semblance of not-living matter, and yet remain potentially alive ; that is to say, on being duly moistened they return to life again. And this revivification may take place after months, or even years, of arrested life. The properties of living matter are intimately related to temperature. Not only does exposure to heat sufficient to decompose protein matter destroy life, by demolishing the molecular structure upon which life depends ; but all vital activity, all phenomena of nutritive growth, movement, and reproduction, are possible only between certain limits of tem- perature. As the temperature approaches these limits the manifestations of life vanish, though they may be recovered by return to the normal conditions ; but, if it pass far beyond these limits, death takes place. This much is clear ; but it is not easy to say exactly what the limits of temperature are, as they appear to vary in part with the kind of living matter, and in part with the con- ditions of moisture which obtain along with the temperature. The conditions of life are so complex in the higher organisms, that the experimental investigation of this question can be 12 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. satisfactorily attempted only in the lowest and simplest forms. It appears that, in the dry state, these are able to bear far greater extremes both of heat and cold than in the moist condition. Thus Pasteur found that the spores of fungi, when dry, could be exposed without destruction to a tem- perature of 120°-125° C. (248°-257° Fahr.), while the same spores, when moist, were all killed by exposure to 100° C. (212° Fahr.). On the other hand, Cagniard de la Tour found that dry yeast might be exposed to the extremely low tem- perature of solid carbonic acid ( — 60° Cor —76° Fahr.) with- out being killed. In the moist state he found that it might be frozen and cooled to —5° C. (23° Fahr.), but that it was killed by lower temperatures. However, it is very desirable that these experiments should be repeated, for Conn's careful observations on Bacteria show that, though they fall into a state of torpidity, and, like yeast, lose all their powers of ex- citing fermentation at, or near, the freezing-point of water, they are not killed by exposure for five hours to a tempera- ture below —10° C. (14° Fahr.), and, for some time, sinking to —18° C. (— 0°.4Fahr.). Specimens of Spirillum volutans, which had been cooled to this extent, began to move about some little time after the ice containing them thawed. But Cohn remarks that Euglenoe, which were frozen along with them, were all killed and disorganized, and that the same fate had befallen the higher Infusoria and Motif era, with the ex- ception of some encysted Vorticellce, in which the rhythmical movements of the contractile vesicle showed that life was preserved. Thus it would appear that the resistance of living matter to cold depends greatly on the special form of that matter, and that the limit of the Euglena, simple organism as it is, is much higher than that of the Bacterium. Considerations of this kind throw some light upon the apparently anomalous conditions under which many of the lower plants, such as Protococcus and the Diatomacea?, and some of the lower animals, such as the Madiolaria, are ob- served to flourish. Protococcus has been found not only on the snows of great heights in temperate latitudes, but cover- ing extensive areas of ice and snow in the Arctic regions, where it must be exposed to extremely low temperatures — in the latter case for many months together ; while the Arctic and Antarctic seas swarm with Diatomacece and Madiolaria. It is on the Diatomacece, as Hooker has well shown, that all surface-life in these regions ultimately depends ; and their enor- RESISTANCE TO HEAT AND COLD. 13 mous multitudes prove that their rate of multiplication is ade- quate to meet the demands made upon them, and is not seri- ously impeded by the low temperature of the waters, never much above the freezing-point, in which they habitually live. The maximum limit of heat which living matter can resist is no less variable than its minimum limit. Kiihne found that marine Amoebce were killed when the temperature reached 35° C. (95° Fahr.), while this was not the case with fresh-water Amoebce, which survived a heat of 5°, or even 10°, C. higher. Actinophrys Eichhornii was not killed until the temperature rose to 44° or 45° C. Didymium serpula is killed at 35° C. ; while another Myxomycete, JEthalium septicum, succumbs only at 40° C. * Colin (" Untersuchungen iiber Bacterien," Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen, Heft 2, 1872) has given the results of a series of experiments conducted with the view of ascertain- ing the temperature at which Bacteria are destroyed when living in a fluid of definite chemical composition, and free from all such complications as must arise from the inequalities of physical condition when solid particles other than the Bac- teria coexist with them. The fluid employed contained 0.1 gramme potassium phosphate, 0.1 gr. crystallized magnesium sulphate, 0.1 gr. tribasic calcium phosphate, and 0.2 gr. am- monium tartrate, dissolved in 20 cubic centimetres of distilled water. If to a certain quantity of this " normal fluid " a small proportion of water containing Bacteria was added, the mul- tiplication of the Bacteria went on with rapidity, whether the mouth of the containing flask was open or hermetically closed. Hermetically-sealed flasks, containing portions of the normal fluid infected with Bacteria, were submerged in water heated to various temperatures, the flask being carefully shaken, with- out being raised out of the water, during its submergence. The result was. that in those flasks which were thus sub- jected, for an hour,' to a heat of 60°-62° C. (140°-143° Fahr.), the Bacteria underwent no development, and the fluid re- mained perfectly clear. On the other hand, in similar experi- ments in which the flasks were heated only to 40° or 50° C. (104°-122° Fahr.), the fluid became turbid, in consequence of the multiplication of the Bacteria, in the course of from two to three days. I am in the habit of demonstrating annually, that Pasteur's solution and hay-infusion, after five minutes' boiling in a flask properly stopped with cotton-wool, remain perfectly clear of living organisms, however long they may be kept. The same 14 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. holds good for a solution analogous to Cohn's, but in which all the saline ingredients are ammonia salts ; ' and in which Bacteria nourish luxuriantly. Prof. Tyndall's large series of experiments give the same results for fluids of the most diverse composition. The cases of milk and some other fluids in which Bacteria are said to appear, after they have been heated above the boiling-point, require renewed investigation. Both in Ktihne's and in Cohn's experiments, which last have lately been confirmed and extended by Dr. Roberts, of Man- chester, it was noted that long exposure to a lower temper- ature than that which brings about immediate destruction of life produces the same effect as short exposure to the latter temperature. Thus, though all the Bacteria were killed, with certainty, in the normal fluid, by short exposure to temper- atures at or above 60° C. (140° Fahr.), Cohn observed that, when a flask containing infected normal fluid was heated to 50°-52° C. (122°-125° Fahr.) for only an hour, the conse- quent multiplication of the Bacteria was manifested much earlier than in one which had been exposed for two hours to the same temperature. It appears to be very generally held that the simpler vege- table organisms are deprived of life at temperatures as high as 60° C. (140° Fahr.) ; but it is affirmed by competent ob- servers that Algce have been found living in hot springs at much higher temperatures, namely, from 168° to 208° Fahr., for which latter surprising fact we have the high authority of Descloiseaux. It is no explanation of these phenomena, but only another mode of stating them, to say that these organ- isms have become " accustomed " to such temperatures. If this degree of heat were absolutely incompatible with the activity of living matter, the plants could no more resist it than they could become " accustomed " to be being made red- hot. Habit may modify subsidiary, but cannot affect funda- mental, conditions. . Recent investigations point to the conclusion that the im- mediate cause of the arrest of vitality, in the first place, and of its destruction, in the second, is the coagulation of certain substances in the protoplasm, and that the latter contains various coagulable matters, which solidify at different temper- atures. And it remains to be seen how far the death of any form of living matter, at a given temperature, depends on the i These were as pure as I could obtain them. It is possible the fluid may have contained an infinitesimal proportion of fixed mineral matter, RESISTANCE TO HEAT AND COLD. 15 destruction of its fundamental substance at that heat, and how far death is brought about by the coagulation of merely accessory compounds. It may be safely said of all those living things which are laro-e enough to enable us to trust the evidence of micro- scopes, 1 that they are heterogeneous optically, and that their different parts, and especially the surface layer, as contrasted with the interior, differ physically and chemically ; while, in most living things, mere heterogeneity is exchanged for a definite structure, whereby the body is distinguished into visibly diverse parts, which possess different powers or func- tions. Living things which present this visible structure are said to be organized ; and so widely does organization obtain among living beings, that organized and living are not unfre- quently used as if they were terms of coextensive applicabil- ity. This, however, is not exactly accurate, if it be thereby implied that all living things have a visible organization, as there are numerous forms of living matter of which it cannot properly be said that they possess either a definite visible structure or permanently specialized organs : though doubt- less the simplest particle of living matter must possess a highly-complex molecular structure, which is far beyond the reach of vision. The broad distinctions which, as a matter of fact, exist between every known form of living substance and every other component of the material world, justify the separation of the biological sciences from all others. But it must not be supposed that the differences between living and not-living matter are such as to bear out the assumption that the forces at work in the one are different from those which are to be met with in the other. Considered apart from the phenomena of consciousness, the phenomena of life are all dependent upon the working of the same physical and chemical forces as those which are active in the rest of the world. It may be convenient to use the terms " vitality " and " vital force " to denote the causes of certain great groups of natural opera- 1 In considering the question of the complication of molecular structure which even the smallest and simplest of living beings may possess, it is well to recollect that an organic particle tssoo of an inch in diameter, in which our best microscopes may be incompetent to reveal the slightest differentiation of parts, may be made up of 1,000,000 particles too^ooo of an inch in diameter, while the molecules of matter are probably much less than Toriooo of an inch in diameter. Hence in such a body there is ample scope for any amount of com- plexity of molecular structure. 2 16 THE ANATOMY OF LNYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. tions, as we employ the names of " electricity " and " electrical force " to denote others ; but it ceases to be proper to do so, if such a name implies the absurd assumption that either " elec- tricity " or "vitality" is an entity playing the part of an effi- cient cause of electrical or vital phenomena. A mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular machine of great complexity, the total results of the working of which, or its vital phenom- ena, depend, on the one hand, upon its construction, and, on the other, upon the energy supplied to it ; and to speak of " vitality " as anything but the name of a series of operations is as if one should talk of the " horologity " of a clock. Living matter, or protoplasm and the products of its meta- morphosis, may be regarded under four aspects : (1.) It has a certain external and internal form, the la iter being more usually called structure ; (2.) It occupies a certain position in space and in time ; (3.) It is the subject of the operation of certain forces, in virtue of which it undergoes internal changes, modifies exter- nal objects, and is modified by them ; and — (4.) Its form, place, and powers, are the effects of certain causes. In correspondence with these four aspects of its subject, Biology is divisible into four chief subdivisions — I. Morphol- ogy; II. Distribution ; III. Physiology; IV. ^Etiology. I. Morphology. So far as living beings have a form and structure, they fall within the province of Anatomy and Histology, the latter being merely a name for that ultimate optical analysis of living structure which can be carried out only by the aid of the microscope. And, in so far as the form and structure of any living being- are not constant during the whole of its existence, but undergo a series of changes from the commencement of that existence to its end, living beings have a Development. The historv of development is an accuont of the anatomy of a liv- ing being at the successive periods of its existence, and of the manner in which one anatomical stage passes into the next. Finally, the systematic statement and generalization of the facts of Morphology, in such a manner as to arrange liv- ing beings in groups, according to their degrees of likeness, is Taxonomy. HISTOLOGY. 17 The study of Anatomy and Development has brought to light certain generalizations of wide applicability and great importance. 1. It has been said that the great majority of living beings present a very definite structure. Unassisted vision and or- dinary dissection suffice to separate the body of any of the higher animals, or plants, into fabrics of different sorts, which always present the same general arrangement in the same organism, but are combined in different ways in different organisms. The discrimination of these comparatively few fabrics, or tissues, of which organisms are composed, was the first step toward that ultimate analysis of visible structure which has become possible only by the recent perfection of microscopes and of methods of preparation. Histology, which embodies the results of this analysis, shows that every tissue of a plant is composed of more or less modified structural elements, each of which is termed a cell ; which cell, in its simplest condition, is merely a spheroidal mass of protoplasm, surrounded by a coat or sac — the cell- wall — which contains cellulose. In the various tissues, these cells may undergo innumerable modifications of form — the protoplasm may become differentiated into a nucleus with its nucleolus, a primordial utricle, and a cavity filled w 7 ith a wa- tery fluid, and the cell-wall may be variously altered in com- position or in structure, or may coalesce with others. But, however extensive these changes may be, the fact that the tissues are made up of morphologically distinct units — the cells — remains patent. And, if any doubt could exist on the subject, it would be removed by the study of development, which proves that every plant commences its existence as a simple cell, identical in its fundamental characters with the less modified of those cells of which the whole body is composed. But it is not necessary to the morphological unit of the plant that it should be always provided with a cell-wall. Cer- tain plants, such as Protococcus, spend longer or shorter peri- ods of their existence in the condition of a mere spheroid of protoplasm, devoid of any cellulose wall, while, at other times, the protoplasmic body becomes inclosed within a cell-wall, fab- ricated by its superficial layer. Therefore, just as the nucleus, the primordial utricle, and the central fluid, are no essential constituents of the morpho- logical unit of the plant, but represent results of its meta- morphosis, so the cell wall is equally unessential ; and either the term " cell " must acquire a merely technical significance 18 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEB RATED ANIMALS. as the equivalent of morphological unit, or some new term must be invented to describe the latter. On the whole, it is probably least inconvenient to modify the sense of the word " cell." The histological analysis of animal tissues has led to sim- ilar results, and to difficulties of terminology of precisely the same character. In the higher animals, however, the modifi- cations which the cells undergo are so extensive that the fact that the tissues are, as in plants, resolvable into an aggrega- tion of morphological units, couid never have been established without the aid of the study of development, which proves that the animal, no less than the plant, commences its exist- ence as a simple cell, fundamentally identical with the less modified cells which are found in the tissues of the adult. Though the nucleus is very constant among animal cells, it is not universally present ; and, among the lowest forms of animal life, the protoplasmic mass which represents the mor- phological unit may be, as in the lowest plants, devoid of a nucleus. In the animal the cell-wall never has the character of a shut sac containing: cellulose : and it is not a little diffi- cult, in many cases, to say how much of the so-called " cell- wall" of the animal cell answers to the " primordial utricle' and how much to the proper " cellulose cell-wall " of the vege- table cell. But it is certain that in the animal, as in the plant, neither cell-wall nor nucleus is an essential constituent of the cell, inasmuch as bodies which are unquestionably the equivalents of cells — true morphological units — may be mere masses of protoplasm, devoid alike of cell-wall and nucleus. For the whole living world, then, it results : that the mor- phological unit — the primary and fundamental form of life — is merely an individual mass of protoplasm, in which no fur- ther structure is discernible ; that independent living forms may present but little advance on this structure; and that all the higher forms of life are aggregates of such morphological units or cells variously modified. Moreover, all that is at present known tends to the conclu- sion that, in the complex aggregates of such units of which ail the higher animals and plants consist, no cell has arisen otherwise than by becoming separated from the protoplasm of a preexisting cell ; whence the aphorism, " Omnis cellula e celluhi." It may further be added, as a general trutli applicable to nucleated cells, that the nucleus rarely undergoes any consid- erable modification, the structures characteristic of the tis- DEVELOPMENT. 19 sues being formed at the expense of the more superficial pro- toplasm of the cells ; and that, when nucleated cells divide, the division of the nucleus, as a rule, precedes that of the whole cell. 2. In the course of its development every cell proceeds, from a condition in which it closely resembles every other cell, through a series of stages of gradually-increasing diver- gence, until it reaches that condition in which it presents the characteristic features of the elements of a special tissue. The development of the cell is, therefore, a gradual progress from the general to the special state. The like holds good of the development of the body as a whole. However complicated one of the higher animals or plants may be, it begins its separate existence under the form of a nucleated cell. This, by division, becomes con- verted into an aggregate of nucleated cells — the parts of this aggregate, following different laws of growth and multiplica- tion, give rise to the rudiments of the organs ; and the parts of these rudiments again take on those modes of growth, mul- tiplication, and metamorphosis, which are needful to convert the rudiment into the perfect structure. The development of the organism as a whole, therefore, repeats in principle the development of the cell. It is a prog- ress from a general to a special form, resulting from the grad- ual differentiation of the primitively similar morphological units of which the body is composed. Moreover, when the stages of development of two animals are compared, the number of these stages which are similar to one another is, as a general rule, proportional to the close- ness of the resemblance of the adult forms ; whence it fol- lows that the more closely any two animals are allied in adult structure, the later are their embryonic conditions distinguish- able. And this general rule holds for plants no less than for animals. The broad principle, that the form in which the more com- plex living things commence their development is always the same, w y as first expressed by Harvey in his famous aphorism, " Omne vivum ex ovo" which w T as intended simply as a mor- phological generalization, and in no wise implied the rejection of spontaneous generation, as it is commonly supposed to do. Moreover, Harvey's study of the development of the chick led him to promulgate that theory of "epigenesis," in which the doctrine that development is a progress from the general to the special is implicitly contained. 20 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED AXLMALS. Caspar F. Wolff furnished further, and indeed conclusive, proof of the truth of the theory of epigenesis ; but, unfortu- nately, the authority of Haller and the speculations of Bonnet led science astray, and it was reserved for Von Baer to put the nature of the process of development in its true light, and to formulate it in his famous law. 3. Development, then, is a process of differentiation by which the primitively similar parts of the living body become more and more unlike one another. This process of differentiation may be effected in several wavs : (1.) The protoplasm of the germ may not undergo divi- sion and conversion into a cell aggregate ; but various parts of its outer and inner substance may be metamorphosed di- rectly into those physically and chemically different materials which constitute the body of the adult. This occurs in such animals as the Infusoria, and in such plants as the unicellular Algee and Fungi. . (2.) The germ may undergo division, and be converted into an aggregate of division masses, or blastomeres, which become cells, and give rise to the tissues by undergoing a metamorphosis of the same kind as that to which the whole body is subjected in the preceding case. The body, formed in either of these ways, may, as a whole, undergo metamorphosis by differentiation of its parts ; and this differentiation may take place without reference to any axis of symmetry, or it may have reference to such an axis. In the latter case, the parts of the body which become dis- tinguishable may correspond on the two sides of the axis (bi- lateral symmetry), or may correspond along several lines paral- lel with the axis (radial symmetry). The bilateral or radial symmetry of the body may be fur- ther complicated by its segmentation, or separation by divi- sions transverse to the axis, into parts, each of which corre- sponds with its predecessor or successor in the series. In the segmented body, the segments may or may not give rise to symmetrically or asymmetrically disposed processes, which are appendages, using that word in its most general sense. And the highest degree of complication of structure, in both animals and plants, is attained by the body when it be- comes divided into segments provided with appendages ; when the segments not only become very different from one another, but some coalesce and lose their primitive distinctness ; and DIFFERENTIATION OF STRUCTURE. 21 when the appendages and the segments into which they are subdivided similarly become differentiated and coalesce. It is in virtue of such processes that the flowers of plants, and the heads and limbs of the Arthropoda and of the Ver- tebrate^ among animals, attain their extraordinary diversity and complication of structure. A flower-bud is a segmented body or axis, with a certain number of whorls of appendages ; and the perfect flower is the result of the gradual differentia- tion and confluence of these primitively similar segments and their appendages. The head of an insect or of a crustacean is, in like manner, composed of a number of segments, each with its pair of appendages, which by differentiation and con- fluence are converted into the feelers and variously modified oral appendages of the adult. In some complex organisms, the process of differentiation by which they pass from the condition of aggregated embryo cells to the adult, can be traced back to the laws of growth of the two or more cells into which the embryo cell is divided, each of these cells giving rise to a particular portion of the adult organism. Thus the fertilized embryo cell in thearche- gonium of a fern divides into four cells, one of which gives rise to the rhizome of the young fern, another to its first root- let, while the other two are converted into a placenta-like mass which remains imbedded in the prothallus. The structure of the stem of Chara depends upon the dif- ferent properties of the cells, which are successively 7 derived by transverse division from the apical cell. An intemodal cell, which elongates greatly, and does not divide, is suc- ceeded by a noded cell, which elongates but little, and becomes greatly subdivided ; this by another internodal cell, and so on in regular alternation. In the same way the structure of the stem, in all the higher plants, depends upon the laws which govern the manner of division and of metamorphosis of the apical cells, and of their continuation in the cambium layer. In all animals which consist of cell-aggregates, the cells of which the embryo is at first composed arrange themselves by the splitting, or by a process of invagination, of the blas- toderm into two layers, the epiblast and the hypoblast ^ be- tween which a third intermediate layer, the mesoblast, ap- pears ; and each layer gives rise to a definite group of organs in the adult. Thus, in the Vertebrata, the epiblast gives rise to the cerebro-spinal axis, and to the epidermis and its deriva- tives ; the hypoblast, to the epithelium of the alimentary 22 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. canal and its derivatives ; and the mesoblast, to intermediate structures. The tendency of recent inquiry is to prove that the several layers of the germ evolve analogous organs in in- vertebrate animals, and to indicate the possibility of tracing the several germ-layers back to the blastomeres of the yelk, from the subdivision of which they proceed. It is conceivable that all the forms of life should have pre- sented about the same differentiation of structure, and should have differed from one another by superficial characters, each form passing by insensible gradations into those most like it. In this case Taxonomy, or the classification of morphological facts, would have had to confine itself to the formation of a serial arrangement, representing the serial gradation of these forms in Nature. It is conceivable, ao-ain, that living beings should have dif- fered as widely in structure as they actually do, but that the interval between any two extreme forms should have been filled up by an unbroken series of gradations ; in which case, again, classification could only affect the formation of series— the strict definition of groups w r ould be as impossible as in the former case. As a matter of fact, living beings differ enormously, not onlv in differentiation of structure, but in the modes in which that differentiation is brought about ; and the intervals be- tween extreme forms are not filled up, in the existing world, by complete series of gradations. Hence it arises that living beings are, to a great extent, susceptible of classification into groups, the members of each group resembling one another, and differing from all the rest, by certain definite peculiarities. No two living beings are exactly alike, but it is a matter of observation that, among the endless diversities of living things, some constantly resemble one another so closely that it is impossible to draw any line of demarkation between them, while they differ only in such characters as are associated with sex. Such as thus closely resemble one another consti- tute a morpholor/ical species / while different morphological species are defined by constant characters which are not merely sexual. The comparison of these lowest groups, or morphological species, with one another, shows that more or fewer of them possess some character or characters in common — some feat- ure in which they resemble one another and differ from all other species — and the group or higher order thus formed is MORPHOLOGICAL GROUPS. 23 a genus. The generic groups thus constituted are susceptible of being arranged in a similar manner into groups of succes- sively higher order, which are known as families, order 's, classes, and the like. The method pursued in the classification of living forms is, in fact, exactly the same as that followed by the maker of an index in working out the heads indexed. In an alphabetical arrangement, the classification may be truly termed a mor- phological one, the object being to put into close relation all those leading words which resemble one another in the arrangement of their letters, that is, in their form, and to keep apart those which differ in structure. Headings which begin with the same word, but differ otherwise, might be compared to genera with their species ; the groups of words with the same first two syllables, to families ; those with identical first syllables, to orders ; and those with the same initial letter, to classes. But there is this difference between the index and the Taxonomic arrangement of living forms, that in the for- mer there is nothing but an arbitrary relation between the various classes, while in the latter the classes are similarly capable of coordination into larger and larger groups, until all are comprehended under the common definition of living- beings. The differences between " artificial " and " natural " clas- sifications are differences in degree, and not in kind. In each case the classification depends upon likeness ; but in an artifi- cial classification some prominent and easil3 T -observed feature is taken as the mark of resemblance or dissemblance ; while, in a natural classification, the things classified are arranged ac- cording to the totality of their morphological resemblances, and the features which are taken as the marks of groups are those which have been ascertained by observation to be the indications of many likenesses or unlikenesses. And thus a natural classification is a great deal more than a mere index. It is a statement of the marks of similarity of organization ; of the kinds of structure which, as a matter of experience, are found universally associated together ; and, as such, it fur- nishes the whole foundation for those indications by which conclusions as to the nature of the whole of an animal are drawn from a knowledge of some part of it. When a paleontologist argues from the characters of a bone or a shell to the nature of the animal to which that bone or shell belonged, he is guided by the empirical morphologi- cal laws established by wide observation, that such a kind of 24 THE AX ATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. bone or shell is associated with such and such structural feat- ures in the rest of the body, and no others. And it is these empirical laws which are embodied and expressed in a natural classification. II. Distribution. Living beings occupy certain portions of the surface of the earth, inhabiting either the dry land, or the fresh or salt waters; or being competent to maintain their existence in either. In any given locality, it is found that these different media are inhabited by different kinds of living beings ; and that the same medium, at different heights in the air and at different depths in the water, has different living inhabitants. Moreover, the living populations of localities which differ . considerably in latitude, and hence in climate, always present considerable differences. But the converse proposition is not true — that is to say, localities which differ in longitude, even if they resemble one another in climate, often have very dis- similar Fawice and Florae. It has been discovered, by careful comparison of local fau- nae and florae, that certain areas of the earth's surface are inhabited by groups of animals and plants which are not found elsewhere, and which thus characterize each of these areas. Such areas are termed Provinces of Distribution. There is no parit}?- between these provinces in extent, nor in the phys- ical configuration of their boundaries ; and, in reference to existing conditions, nothing can appear to be more arbitrary and capricious than the distribution of living beings. The study of distribution is not confined to the present order of Nature ; but, by the help of geology, the naturalist is enabled to obtain clear, though too fragmentary, evidence of the characters of the faunae and florae of antecedent epochs. The re- mains of organisms which are contained in the stratified rocks prove that, in any given part of the earth's surface, the living population of earlier epochs was different from that which now exists in the locality ; and that, on the whole, the difference becomes greater the farther we go back in time. The organic remains which are found in the later Cainozoic deposits of any district are always closely allied to those now found in the province of distribution in which that locality is included ; while in the older Cainozoic the resemblance is less ; and in the Mesozoic, and the Palaeozoic strata, the fossils may be similar to creatures at present living in some other province, or may be altogether unlike any which now exist. DISTRIBUTION IN TIME. 25 In any given locality, the succession of living forms may appear to be interrupted by numerous breaks — the associated species in each fossiliferous bed being quite distinct from those above and those below them. But the tendency of all palaeontological investigation is to show that these breaks are only apparent, and arise from the incompleteness of the series of remains which happens to have been preserved in any given locality. As the area over which accurate geological investi- p-ations have been carried on extends, and as the fossiliferous rocks found in one locality fill up the gaps left in another, so do the abrupt demarkations between the faunae and florae of successive epochs disappear — a certain proportion of the gen- era and even of the species of every period, great or small, being found to be continued for a longer or shorter time into the next succeeding period. It is evident, in fact, that the changes in the living population of the globe which have taken place during its history have been effected, not by the sud- den replacement of one set of living beings by another, but by a process of slow and gradual introduction of new species, accompanied by the extinction of the older forms. It is a remarkable circumstance that, in all parts of the globe in which fossiliferous rocks have yet been examined, the successive terms of the series of living forms which have thus succeeded one another are analogous. The life of the Mesozoic epoch is everywhere characterized by the abundance of some groups of species of which no trace is to be found in either earlier or later formations ; and the like is true of the Palaeozoic epoch. Hence it follows, not only that there has been a succession of species, but that the general nature of that succession has been the same all over the globe ; and it is on this ground that fossils are so important to the geologist as marks of the relative age of rocks. The determination of the morphological relations of the species which have thus succeeded one another, is a problem of profound importance and difficulty, the solution of which, however, is already clearly indicated. For, in several cases, it is possible to show that, in the same geographical area, a form A, which existed during a certain geological epoch, has been replaced by another form B, at a later period; and that this form B has been replaced, still later, by a third form C. When these forms, A, B, and C, are compared together they are found to be organized upon the same plan, and to be verv similar even in most of the details of their structure; but B differs from A by a slight modification of some of its 26 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. parts, which modification is carried to a still greater extent inC. In other words, A, B, and C, differ from one another in the same fashion as the earlier and later stages of the em- bryo of the same animals differ ; and, in successive epochs, we have the group presenting that progressive specialization which characterizes the development of the individual. Clear evidence that this progressive specialization of structure has actually occurred has as yet been obtained in only a few cases (e. g., Equidoe, Crocodilia), and these are confined to the highest and most complicated forms of life ; while it is de- monstrable that, even as reckoned by geological time, the pro- cess must have been exceedingly slow. Among the lower and less complicated forms, the evidence of progressive modification, furnished by comparison of the oldest with the latest forms, is slight, or absent ; and some of these have certainly persisted, with very little change, from extremely ancient times to the present day. It is as important to recognize the fact that certain forms of life have thus persisted, as it is to admit that others have undergone progressive modification. It has been said that the successive terms in the series of living forms are analogous in all parts of the globe. But the species which constitute the corresponding or homotaxic terms in the series, in different localities, are not identical. And, though the imperfection of our knowledge at present pre- cludes positive assertion, there is every reason to believe that geographical provinces have existed throughout the period during which organic remains furnish us with evidence of the existence of life. The wide distribution of certain Palaeozoic forms does not militate against this view ; for the recent in- vestigations into the nature of the deep-sea fauna have shown that numerous Crustacea, Echinodermata, and other inver- tebrate animals, have as wide a distribution now as their ana- logues possessed in the Silurian epoch. III. Physiology. Thus far, living beings have been regarded merelj' as definite forms of matter, and biology has presented no con- siderations of a different order from those which meet the student of mineralogy. But living things are not only natural bodies, having a definite form and mode of structure, growth, and development. They are machines in action ; and, under FUNCTIONS AND ORGANS. 27 this aspect, the phenomena which they present have no par- allel in the mineral world. The actions of living matter are termed its functions ; and these functions, varied as they are, may be reduced to three categories. They are either — (1), functions which affect the material composition of the body, and determine its mass, which is the balance of the processes of waste on the one hand and those of assimilation on the other ; or (2), they are functions which subserve the process of reproduction, which is essentially the detachment of a part endowed with the pow- er of developing into an independent whole ; or (3), they are functions in virtue of which one part of the body is able to exert a direct influence on another, and the body, by its parts or as a whole, becomes a source of molar motion. The first may be termed sustentative, the second generative, and the third correlative functions. Of these three classes *of functions the first two only can be said to be invariably present in living beings, all of which are nourished, grow, and multiply. But there are some forms of life, such as many Fungi, which are not known to possess any powers of changing their form ; in which the protoplasm exhibits no movements, and reacts upon no stimulus ; and in which any influence which the different parts of the body ex- ert upon one another must be transmitted indirectly from molecule to molecule of the common mass. In most of the lowest plants, however, and in all animals yet known, the body either constantl} 7, or temporarily changes its form, either with or without the application of a special stimulus, and thereby modifies the relations of its parts to one another, and of the whole to surrounding bodies ; while, in all the higher animals, the different parts of the body are able to affect, aud be affected bv one another, by means of a special tissue, termed nerve. Molar motion is effected on a large scale by means of another special tissue, muscle ; and the organism is brought into relation with surrounding bodies by means of a third kind of special tissue — that of the sensory organs — by means of which the forces exerted by surrounding bodies are trans- muted into affections of nerve. In the lowest forms of life, the functions which have been enumerated are seen in their simplest forms, and they are ex- erted indifferently, or nearly so, by all parts of the proto- plasmic body ; and the like is true of the functions of the body of even the highest organisms, so long as they are in the condition of the nucleated cell, which constitutes the 28 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. starting-point of their development. But the first process in that development is the division of the germ into a number of morphological units or blastomeres, which, eventually, give rise to cells ; and- as each of these possesses the same physio- logical functions as the germ itself, it follows that each mor- phological unit is also a physiological unit, and the multicellu- lar mass is strictly a compound organism, made up of a mul- titude of physiologically independent cells. The physiologi- cal activities manifested by the complex whole represent the sum, or rather the resultant, of the separate and independent physiological activities resident in each of the simpler con- stituents of that w T hole. The morphological changes which the cells undergo in the course of the further development of the organism do not affect their individuality ; and, notwithstanding the modi- fication and confluence of its constituent cells, the adult or- ganism, however complex, is still an aggregate of morphologi- cal units. Nor is it less an aggregate of physiological units, each of which retains its fundamental independence, though that independence becomes restricted in various w T ays. Each cell, or that element of a tissue w T hich proceeds from the modification of a cell, must needs retain its sustentative functions so long as it grows or maintains a condition of equilibrium ; but the most completely metamorphosed cells show no trace of the generative function, and many exhibit no correlative functions. Contrariwise, those cells of the adult organism which are the unmetamorphosed derivatives of the germ exhibit all the primary functions, not only nourishing themselves and growing, but multiplying, aud frequently showing more or less marked movements. Organs are parts of the body which perform particular functions. In strictness, perhaps, it is not quite right to speak of organs of sustentation or generation, each of these functions being necessarily performed by the morphological unit which is nourished or reproduced. What are called the organs of these functions are the apparatuses by which cer- tain operations, subsidiary to sustentation and generation, are carried on. Thus, in the case of the sustentative functions, all those organs may be said to contribute to these functions which are concerned in bringing nutriment within the reach of the ulti- mate cells, or in removing waste matter from them ; while in the case of the generative function, all those organs contribute to the function which produce the cells from which germs are MUSCLE AND NERVE. 29 given off ; or help in the evacution, or fertilization, or develop- ment, of these germs. On the other hand, the correlative functions, so long as they are exerted by a simple undifferentiated morphological unit or cell, are of the simplest character, consisting of those modifications of position which can be effected by mere changes in the form or arrangement of the parts of the pro- toplasm, or of those prolongations of the protoplasm which are called pseudopodia or cilia. But, in the higher animals and plants, the movements of the organism and of its parts are brought about by the change of the form of certain tis- sues, the property of which is to shorten in one direction when exposed to certain stimuli. Such tissues are termed contractile ; and, in their most fully developed condition, muscular. The stimulus by which this contraction is natu- rally brought about is a molecular change, either in the sub- stance of the contractile tissue itself, or in some other part of the body ; in which latter case, the motion which is set up in that part of the body must be propagated to the contractile tissue through the intermediate substance of the body. In plants, there seems to be no question that parts which retain a hardly modified cellular structure may serve as channels for the transmission of this molecular motion ; whether the same is true of animals is not certain. But, in all the more com- plex animals, a peculiar fibrous tissue — nerve — serves as the agent by which contractile tissue is affected by changes oc- curring elsewhere, and by which contractions thus initiated are coordinated and brought into harmonious combination. While the sustentative functions in the higher forms of life are still, as in the lower, fundamentally dependent upon the powers inherent in all the physiological units which make up the body, the correlative functions are, in the former, deputed to two sets of specially modified units, which constitute the muscular and the nervous tissues. When the different forms of life are compared together as physiological machines, they are found to differ as machines of human construction do. In the lower forms, the mechan- ism, though perfectly well adapted to do the work fcr which it is required, is rough, simple, and weak ; w 7 hile, in the higher, it is finished, complicated, and powerful. Considered as machines, there is the same sort of difference between a polyp and a horse as there is between a distaff and a spin- ning-jenny. In the progress from the lower to the higher organism, there is a gradual differentiation of organs and of 30 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. functions. Each function is separated into many parts, which are severally intrusted to distinct organs. To use the strik- ing phrase of Milne-Edwards, in passing from low to high organisms, there is a division of physiological labor. And exactly the same process is observable in the development of any of the higher organisms ; so that, physiologically as well as morphologically, development is a progress from the gen- eral to the special. Thus far, the physiological activities of living matter have been considered in themselves, and without reference to any- thing that may affect them in the world outside the living body. But living matter acts on, and is powerfully affected by, the bodies which surround it; and the study of the in- fluence of the " conditions of existence " thus determined constitutes a most important part of physiolog} 7 . The sustentative functions, for example, can only be ex- erted under certain conditions of temperature, pressure, and light, in certain media, and with supplies of particular kinds of nutritive matter ; the sufficiency of which supplies, again, is greatly influenced by the competition of other organisms, which, striving to satisfy the same needs, give rise to the passive " struggle for existence." The exercise of the correl- ative functions is influenced by similar conditions, and by the direct conflict with other organisms, which constitutes the ac- tive struggle for existence. And, finally, the generative func- tions are subject to extensive modifications, dependent partly upon what are commonly called external conditions, and part- ly upon wholly unknown agencies. In the lowest forms of life, the only mode of generation at present known is the division of the body into two or more parts, each of which then grows to the size and assumes the form of its parent, and repeats the process of multiplication. This method of multiplication by fission is properly called generation, because the parts which are separated are sev- erally competent to give rise to individual organisms of the same nature as that from which they arose. In many of the lowest organisms the process is modified so far that, instead of the parent dividing into two equal parts, only a small portion of its substance is detached, as a bud, which develops into the likeness of its parent. This is generation by gemmation. Generation by fission and by gemmation is not confined to the simplest forms of life, however. On the contrary, both modes of multiplication are AGAMOGENESIS. 31 common not only among plants, but among animals of con- siderable complexity. The multiplication of flowering plants by bulbs, that of annelids by fission, and that of polyps by budding, are well- known examples of these modes of reproduction. In all these cases, the bud or the segment consists of a multitude of more or less metamorphosed cells. But, in other in- stances, a single cell detached from a mass of such undiffer- entiated cells contained in the parental organism is the foun- dation of the new organism, and it is hard to say whether such a detached cell may be more fitly called a bud or a segment — whether the process is more akin to fission or to gemma- tion. In all these cases the development of the new being from the detached germ takes place without the influence of other living matter. Common as the process is in plants and in the lower animals, it becomes rare among the higher animals. In these, the reproduction of the whole organism from a part, in the w 7 ay indicated above, ceases. At most we find that the cells at the end of an amputated portion of the organism are capable of reproducing the lost part ; in the very highest animals, even this power vanishes in the adult ; and, in most parts of the body, though the undifferentiated cells are capable of multiplication, their progeny grow, not into w r hole organisms like that of which they form a part, but into ele- ments of the tissues. Throughout almost the whole series of living beings, how- ever, we find concurrently with the process of a gaino genesis, or asexual generation, another method of generation, in which the development of the germ into an organism resembling the parent depends on an influence exerted by living matter different from the germ. This is gamogenesis or sexual gen- eration. Looking at the facts broadly, and without reference to many exceptions in detail, it may be said that there is an inverse relation between agamogenetic and gamogenetic re- production. In the lowest organisms gamogenesis has not yet been observed, while in the highest agamogenesis is ab- sent. In many of the lower forms of life agamogenesis is the common and predominant mode of reproduction, while gamo- genesis is exceptional ; on the contrary, in many of the high- er, w^hile gamogenesis is the rule, agamogenesis takes place exceptionally. In its simplest condition, which is termed u conjugation ," sexual generation consists in the coalescence of two similar 3 32 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. masses of protoplasmic matter, derived from different parts of the same organism, or from two organisms of the same species, and the single mass which results from the fusion develops into a new organism. In the majority of cases, however, there is a marked mor- phological difference between the two factors in the process, and then one is called the male, and the other the female, element. The female element is relatively large, and under- goes but little change of form. Jn all the higher plants and animals it is a nucleated cell, to which a greater or less amount of nutritive material, constituting a food-yelk, may be added. The male element, ou the other hand, is relatively small. It may be conveyed to the female element by an outgrowth of the wall of its cell, which is short in many Algce and Fungi, but becomes an immensely elongated tubular filament, in the case of the pollen-cell of flowering plants. But, more com- monly, the protoplasm of the male cell becomes converted into rods or filaments, which usually are in active vibratile movement, and sometimes are propelled by numerous cilia. Occasionally, however, as in many Nematoidea and Arthro- pocla, they are devoid of mobility. The manner in which the contents of the pollen-tube affect the embryo cell in flowering plants is unknown, as no perforation through, which the contents of the pollen-tube may pass, so as actually to mix with the substance of the em- bryo cell, has been discovered ; and there is the same diffi- culty with respect to the conjugative processes of some of the Cryptogamia. But in the great majority of plants, and in all animals, there can be no doubt that the substance of the male element actually mixes with that of the female, so that, in all these cases, the sexual process remains one of con- jugation; and impregnation is the physical admixture of pro- toplasmic matter derived from two sources, which may be either different parts of the same organism, or different organ- isms. The effect of impregnation appears in all cases to be that the impregnated protoplasm tends to divide into portions (blastorneres), which may remain united as a single cell-aggre- gate, or some or all of which may become separate organ- isms. A longer or shorter period of rest, in many cases, intervenes between the act of impregnation and the com- mencement of the process of division. As a general rule, the female cell, which directly receives GAMOGEXESIS. 33 the influence of the male, is that which undergoes division and eventual development into independent germs ; but there are some plants, such as the Floridece, in which this is not the case. In these, the protoplasmic body of the trichogyne, which unites with the spermatozooids, does not undergo division itself, but transmits some influence to adjacent cells, in virtue of which they become subdivided into independent germs or spores. There is still much obscurity respecting the reproductive processes of the Infusoria ; but, in the Vorticellidae, it would appear that conjugation merely determines a condition of the whole organism, which gives rise to the division of the endo- plast or so-called nucleus, by which germs are thrown off; and, if this be the case, the process would have some analogy to what takes place in the Floridece. On the other hand, the process of conjugation by which two distinct Dlporpce combine into that extraordinary double organism, the Diplozoon paradoazum, does not directly give rise to germs, but determines the development of the sexual organs in each of the conjugated individuals ; and the same process takes place in a large number of the Infusoria, if what are supposed to be male sexual elements in them are really such. The process of impregnation in the JFloridece is remark- ably interesting, from its bearing upon the changes which fecundation is known to produce upon parts of the parental organism other than the ovum, even in the highest animals and plants. The nature of the influence exerted by the male element upon the female is wholly unknown. No morphological dis- tinction can be drawn between those cells which are capable of reproducing the whole organism without impregnation and those which need it, as is obvious from what happens in insects, where eggs which ordinarily require impregnation, exceptionally, as in many moths, or regularly, as in the case of the drones among bees, develop without impregnation. Even in the higher animals, such as the fowl, the earlier stages of division of the germ may take place without im- pregnation. In fact, generation may be regarded as a particular case of cell-multiplication, and impregnation simply as one of the many conditions which may determine or affect that process. In the lowest organisms the simple protoplasmic mass divides, and each part retains all the physiological properties of the 34 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. whole, and consequently constitutes a germ whence the whole body can be reproduced. In more advanced organisms each of the multitude of cells into which the embryo cell is converted at first, probably retains all, or nearly all, the physiological capabilities of the whole, and is capable of serving as a re- productive germ ; but, as division goes on, and many of the cells which result from division acquire special morphological and pliysiological properties, it seems not improbable that they, in proportion, lose their more general characters. In propor- tion, for example, as the tendency of a given cell to become a muscle-cell or a cartilage-cell is more marked and definite, it is readily conceivable that its primitive capacity to reproduce the whole organism should be reduced, though it might not be altogether abolished. If this view is well based, the power of reproducing the whole organism would be limited to those cells which had acquired no special tendencies, and conse- quently had retained all the powders of the primitive cell in which the organism commenced its existence. The more ex- tensively diffused such cells were, the more generally might multiplication by budding or fission take place ; the more lo- calized, the more limited would be the parts of the organism in which such a process would take place. And, even where such cells occurred, their development or non-development might be connected with conditions of nutrition. It depends on the nutriment supplied to the female larva of a bee wheth- er it shall become a neuter or a sexually perfect female ; and the sexual perfection of a large proportion of the internal parasites is similarly dependent upon their food, and perhaps on other conditions, such as the temperature of the medium in which they live. Thus the gradual disappearance of aga- mogenesis in the higher animals would be related with that increasing specialization of function which is their essential characteristic ; and, when it ceases to occur altogether, it may be supposed that no cells are left which retain unmodified the powers of the primitive embryo cell. The organism is like a society in which every one is so engrossed by his spe- cial business that he has neither time nor inclination to marry. Even the female elements in the highest organisms, little as they differ to all appearance from undifferentiated cells, and though they are directly derived from epithelial cells which have undergone very little modification from the condi- tion of blastomeres, are incapable of full development unless they are subjected to the influence of the male element, which may, as Caspar Wolff suggested, be compared to a kind of THE ALTERNATION OF GENERATIONS. 35 nutriment. But it is a living nutriment, in some respects comparable to that which would be supplied to an animal kept alive by transfusion, and its molecules transfer to the impregnated embryo cell all the special characters of the or- ganism to which it belonged. The tendency of the germ to reproduce the characters of its immediate parents, combined, in the case of sexual genera- tion, with the tendency to reproduce the characters of the male, is the source of the singular phenomena of hereditary transmission. No structural modification is so slight, and no functional peculiarity is so insignificant in either parent, that it may not make its appearance in the offspring. But the transmission of parental peculiarities depends greatly upon the manner in which they have been acquired. Such as have arisen naturally, and have been hereditar}- through many an- tecedent generations, tend to appear in the progeny with great force ; while artificial modifications — such, for example, as result from mutilation — are rarely, if ever, transmitted. Circumcision through innumerable ancestral generations does not appear to have reduced that rite to a mere formality, as it should have done if the abbreviated prepuce had become hereditary in the descendants of Abraham ; while modern lambs are born with long tails, notwithstanding the long-con- tinued practice of cutting those of every generation short. And it remains to be seen whether the supposed hereditary transmission of the habit of retrieving among dogs is really what it seems at first sight to be ; on the other side, Brown- Sequard's case of the transmission of artificially-induced epi- lepsy in Guinea-pigs is undoubtedly very weight} 7 . Although the germ always tends to reproduce, directly or indirectly, the organism from which it is derived, the result of its development differs somewhat from the parent. Usually the amount of variation is insignificant ; but it may be con- siderable, as in the so-called " sports ; " and such variations, whether useful or useless, may be transmitted with great te- nacity to the offspring of the subjects of them. In many plants and animals which multiply both asexually and sexually there is no definite relation between the aga- mogenetic and the gamogenetic phenomena. The organism may multiply asexually before, or after, or concurrently with, the occurrence of sexual generation. But in a great many of the lower organisms, both animal and vegetable, the organism (A) which results from the im- pregnated germ produces offspring only agamogenetically. 36 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. It thus gives rise to a series of independent organisms (B, B, B, . . .), which are more or less different from A, and which sooner or later acquire generative organs. From their impregnated germs A is reproduced. The process thus de- scribed is what has been termed the "alternation of genera- tions" under its simplest form — for example, as it is exhibited by the SailpoB. In more complicated cases the independent organisms which correspond with B may give rise agamo- genetically to others (BJ, and these to others (B 2 ), and so on (e. g., Aphis). But, however long the series, a iinai term appears which develops sexual organs, and reproduces A. The " alternation of generations " is, therefore, in strictness, an alternation of asexual with sexual generation, in which the products of the one process differ from those of the other. The Hydrozoa offer a complete series of gradations be- tween those cases in which the term B is represented by a free, self-nourishing organism (e. g., Cyancea), through those in which it is free but unable to feed itself ( Calycophoridce), to those in which the sexual elements are developed in bodies which resemble free zooids, but are never detached, and are mere generative organs of the body on which they are devel- oped (Cordylophora). In the last case the " individual " is the total product of the development of the impregnated embryo, all the parts of which remain in material continuity with one another. The multiplication of mouths and stomachs in a Cordylophora no more makes it an aggregation of different individuals than the multiplication of segments and legs in a centipede con- verts that Arthropod into a compound animal. The Cordy- lophora is a differentiation of a whole into many parts, and the use of any terminology which implies that it results from the coalescence of many parts into a whole is to be depre- cated. In Cordylophora the generative organs are incapable of maintaining a separate existence ; but in nearly-allied Hydro- zoa the unquestionable homologues of these organs become free zooids, in many cases capable of feeding and growing, and developing the sexual elements only after they have un- dergone considerable changes of form. Morphologically, the swarm of Medusce thus set free from a Hydrozoon are as much organs of the latter as the multitudinous pinnules of a Comatula, with their genital glands, are organs of the Echi- noderm. Morphologically, therefore, the equivalent of the CAUSES OF THE PHENOMENA OF LIFE. 37 individual Comatula is the Hydrozoic stock plus all the Me- clusce which proceed from it. No doubt it sounds paradoxical to speak of a million of Aphides, for example, as parts of one morphological individ- ual ; but beyond the momentary shock of the paradox no harm is done. On the other hand, if the asexual Aphides are held to be individuals, it follows, as a logical consequence, not only that all the polyps on a Gordylophora tree are " feeding individuals," and all the genital sacs " generative individuals," while the stem must be a " stump individual," but that the eyes and legs of a lobster are "ocular" and " locomotive individuals." And this conception is not only somewhat more paradoxical than the other, but suggests a conception of the origin of the complexity of animal struct- ure which is wholly inconsistent with fact. IV. ^Etiology. Morphology, distribution, and physiology, investigate and determine the facts of biology. ^Etiology has for its object the ascertainment of the causes of these facts, and the ex- planation of biological phenomena, by showing that the}^ con- stitute particular cases of general physical laws. It is hardly needful to say that aetiology, as thus conceived, is in its in- fancy, and that the seething controversies, to which the attempt to found this branch of science made in the "Origin of Species " has given rise, cannot be dealt with in this place. At most, the general nature of the problems to be solved, and the course of inquiry needful for their solution, may be indi- cated. In any investigation into the causes of the phenomena of life, the first question which arises is, Whether we have any knowledge, and if so, what knowledge, of the origin of living matter ? In the case of all conspicuous and easily-studied organ- isms, it has been obvious, since the study of Nature began, that living beings arise by generation from living beings of a like kind ; but, before the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, learned and unlearned alike shared the conviction that this rule was not of universal application, and that multitudes of the smaller and more obscure organisms were produced by the fermentation of not-living, and especially of putrefying dead matter, by what was then termed generatio cequivoca or spontanea, and is now called abiogenesis. Redi showed 38 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. that the general belief was erroneous in a multitude of in- stances ; ISpallanzani added largely to the list ; while the in- vestigations of the scientific helminthologists of the present century have eliminated a further category of cases in which it was possible to doubt the applicability of the rule " omne vivam e vivo" to the more complex organisms which consti- tute the present fauna and flora of the earth. Even the most extravagant supporters of abiogenesis at the present day do not pretend that organisms of higher rank than the lowest Fungi and Protozoa are produced otherwise than by genera- tion from preexisting organisms. But it is pretended that Bacteria, Torulw, certain Fungi, and "Monads," are de- veloped under conditions which render it impossible that these organisms should have proceeded directly from living matter. The experimental evidence adduced in favor of this prop- osition is always of one kind, and the reasoning on which the conclusion that abiogenesis occurs is based may be stated in the following form : All living matter is killed by being heated to n degrees. The contents of a vessel, the entry of germs from without into which is prevented, have been heated to n degrees. Therefore, all living matter which may have existed there- in has been killed. But living Bacteria, etc., have appeared in these contents subsequently to their being heated. Therefore, they have been formed abiogenetically. No objection can be taken to the logical form of this rea- soning, but it is obvious that its applicability to any particu- lar case depends entirely upon the validity, in that case, of the first and second propositions. Suppose a fluid to be full of Bacteria in active motion, what evidence have we that they are killed when that fluid is heated to n degrees ? There is but one kind of conclusive evidence, namely, that from that time forth no living Bacteria make their appearance in the liquid, supposing it to be prop- erly protected from the intrusion of fresh Bacteria, The oniy other evidence, that, for example, which may be fur- nished by the cessation of the motion of the Bacteria, and such slight changes as our microscopes permit us to observe in their optical characters, is simply presumptive evidence of death, and no more conclusive than the stillness and paleness of a man in a swoon are proof that he is dead. And the caution is the more necessary in the case of Bacteria, since ABIOGENESIS. 39 many of them naturally pass a considerable part of their ex- istence in a condition in which they show no marks of life whatever save growth and multiplication. If indeed it could be proved that, in cases which are not open to doubt, living matter is always and invariably killed at precisely the same temperature, there might be some ground for the assumption that, in those which are obscure, death must take place under the same circumstances. But what are the facts? It has already been pointed out that, leaving Bacteria aside, the range of high temperatures be- tween the lowest, at which some living things are certainly killed, and the highest, at which others certainly live, is rather more than 100° Fahr., that is to say, between 104° Fahr. and 208° Fahr. It makes no sort of difference to the argument how living- being's have come to be able to bear such a tern- perature as the last mantioned ; the fact that they do so is sufficient to prove that, under certain conditions, such a tem- perature is not sufficient to destroy life. 1 Thus it appears that there is no ground for the assumption that all living matter is killed at some given temperature be- tween 104° and 208° Fahr. No experimental evidence that a liquid may be heated to n degrees, and yet subsequently give rise to living organisms, is of the smallest value as proof that abiogenesis has taken place, and for two reasons : Firstly, there is no proof that organisms of the kind in question are dead, except their per- manent incapacity to grow and reproduce their kind ; and, secondly, since we know that conditions may largely modify the power of resistance of such organisms to heat, it is far more probable that such conditions existed in the experiment in question, than that the organisms were generated afresh out of dead matter. Not only is the kind of evidence adduced in favor of abiogenesis logically insufficient to furnish proof of its occur- rence, but it may be stated, as a well-based induction, that the more careful the investigator, and the more complete his mastery over the endless practical difficulties which surround experimentation on this subject, the more certain are his ex- periments to give a negative result ; while positive results are no less sure to crown the efforts of the clumsy and the careless. 1 Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale have recently shown good grounds for believing that the germs of some Monads are not destroyed by exposure to a temperature of 260° Fahr. or even 300° Fahr. 40 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. It is argued that a belief in abiogenesis is a necessary- corollary from the doctrine of Evolution. This may be true of the occurrence of abiogenesis at some time ; but if the present day, or any recorded epoch of geological time, be in question, the exact contrary holds good. If all living beings have been evolved from preexisting forms of life, it is enough that a single particle of living protoplasm should once have appeared on the globe, as the result of no matter what agency. In the eyes of a consistent evolutionist, any further indepen- dent formation of protoplasm would be sheer waste. The production of living matter since the time of its first appearance, only by way of biogenesis, implies that the spe- cific forms of the lower kinds of life have undergone but little change in the course of geological time, and this is said to be inconsistent with the doctrine of evolution. But, in the first place, the fact is not inconsistent with the doctrine of evolu- tion properly understood, that doctrine being perfectly con- sistent with either the progression, the retrogression, or the stationary condition, of any particular species for indefinite periods of time ; and, secondly, if it were, it would be so much the worse for the doctrine of evolution, inasmuch, as it is un- questionably true that certain, even highly-organized, forms of life have persisted without any sensible change for very long periods. The Terebratula psittacea of the present day, for example, is not distinguishable from that of the Cretaceous epoch, while the highly-organized Teleostean fish, Beryw, of the Chalk, differed only in minute specific characters from that which now lives. Is it seriously suggested that the ex- isting lerehratulm and JBeryces are not the lineal descendants of their Cretaceous ancestors, but that their modern repre- sentatives have been independently developed from primordial germs in the interval ? But if this is too fantastic a sugges- tion for grave consideration, why are we to believe that the Globif/erince of the present day are not lineally descended from the Cretaceous forms? And, if their unchanged genera- tions have succeeded one another for all the enormous time represented by the deposition of the Chalk and that of the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits, what difficulty is there in supposing that they may not have persisted unchanged for a greatly longer period ? The fact is, that at the present moment there is not a shadow of trustworthy direct evidence that abiogenesis does take place, or has taken place, within the period during which the existence of life on the globe is recorded. But it ORIGIX OF SPECIES. 41 need hardly be pointed out that the fact does not in the slightest degree interfere with any conclusion that may be arrived at, deductively, from other considerations that, at some time or other, abiogenesis must have taken place. If the hypothesis of evolution is true, living matter must have arisen from not-living matter ; for, by the hypothesis, the condition of the globe was at one time such that living matter could not have existed in it, 1 life being entirely in- compatible with the gaseous state. But, living matter once originated, there is no necessity for another origination, since the hypothesis postulates the unlimited, though perhaps not indefinite, modifiability of such matter. Of the causes which have led to the origination of living matter, then, it may be said that we know absolutely nothing. But postulating the existence of living matter endowed with that power of hereditary transmission, and with that tendency to vary which is found in all such matter, Mr. Darwin has shown good reasons for believing that the interaction between living matter and surrounding conditions, which results in the survival of the fittest, is sufficient to account for the gradual evolution of plants and animals from their simplest to their most complicated forms, and for the known phe- nomena of Morphology, Physiology, and Distribution. Mr. Darwin has further endeavored to give a physical explanation of hereditary transmission by his hypothesis of Pangenesis ; while he seeks for the principal, if not the only cause of variation in the influence of changing condi- tions. It is on this point that the chief divergence exists among those who accept the doctrine of evolution in its general outlines. Three views may be taken of the causes of varia- tion : a. In virtue of its molecular structure, the organism may tend to vary. This variability may either be indefinite, or may be limited to certain directions by intrinsic conditions. In the former case, the result of the struggle for existence would be the survival of the fittest among an indefinite number of varieties ; in the latter case, it would be the survival of the fittest among a certain set of varieties, the 1 It makes no difference if we adopt Sir "W. Thomson's hypothesis, and suppose that the germs of living things have "been transported to our globe from some other, seeing that there is as much reason for supposing that all stellar and planetary components of the universe are or have been gaseous, as that the earth has passed through this stage. 42 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. nature and number of which would be predetermined by the molecular structure of the organism. b. The organism may have no intrinsic tendency to vary, but variation may be brought about by the influence of con- ditions external to it. And in this case, also, the variability induced may be either indefinite or defined by intrinsic limi- tation. c. The two former cases may be combined, and variation may to some extent depend upon intrinsic, and to some ex- tent upon extrinsic, conditions. At present it can hardly be said that such evidence as would justify the positive adoption of any one of these views exists. If all living beings have come into existence by the gradual modification, through a long series of generations, of a pri- mordial living matter, the phenomena of embryonic develop- ment ought to be explicable as particular cases of the general law of hereditary transmission. On this view, a tadpole is first a fish, and then a tailed amphibian, provided with both gills and lungs, before it becomes a frog, because the frog was the last term in a series of modifications whereby some ancient fish became a urodele amphibian; and the urodele amphibian became an anurous amphibian. In fact, the de- velopment of the embryo is a recapitulation of the ancestral history of the species. If this be so, it follows that the development of any organism should furnish the key to its ancestral history ; and the attempt to decipher the full pedigree of organisms from so much of the family history as is recorded in their develop- ment has given rise to a special branch of biological specula- tion, termed phytogeny. In practice, however, the reconstruction of the pedigree of a group from the developmental history of its existing mem- bers is fraught with difficulties. It is highly probable that the series of developmental stages of the individual organism never presents more than an abbreviated and condensed sum- mary of ancestral conditions ; while this summary is often strangely modified by variation and adaptation to conditions ; and it must be confessed that, in most cases, we can do little better than guess what is genuine recapitulation of ancestral forms, and what is the effect of comparatively late adapta- tion. The only perfectly safe foundation for the doctrine of evolu- tion lies in the historical, or rather archaeological, evidence PHYLOGENY. 4 o that particular organisms have arisen by the gradual modifi- cation of their predecessors, which is furnished by fossil remains. That evidence is daily increasing in amount and in weight ; and it is to be hoped that the comparison of the actual pedigree of these organisms with the phenomena of their development may furnish some criterion by which the validity of phylogenetic conclusions, deduced 'from the facts of embryology alone, may be satisfactorily tested. CHAPTER I. I. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF ANIMALS. The more complicated forms of the living things, the general characters of which have now been discussed, appear to be readily distinguishable into widely-separated groups, animals, and plants. The latter have no power of locomo- tion, and only rarely exhibit any distinct movement of their parts when these are irritated, mechanically or otherwise. They are devoid of any digestive cavity ; and the matters which serve as their nutriment are absorbed in the gaseous and fluid state. Ordinary animals, on the contrary, not only possess conspicuous locomotive activity, but their parts readily alter their form or position when irritated. Their nutriment, consisting of other animals or of plants, is taken in the solid form into a digestive cavity. But even without descending to the very lowest forms of animals and plants, w T e meet with facts which weaken the force of these apparently broad distinctions. Among animals, a coral or an oyster is as incapable of locomotion as an oak ; and a tape-w T orm feeds by imbibition and not by the ingestion of solid matter. On the other hand, the Sensitive-Plant and the Sundew exhibit movements on irritation, and the recent observatious of Mr. Darwin and others leave little doubt that the so-called " insectivorous plants " really digest and assimi- late the nutritive matters contained in the living animals which they catch and destroy. All the higher animals are dependent for the protein compounds which they contain upon other animals or upon plants. They are unable to man- ufacture protein out of simpler substances ; and, although positive proof is wanting that this incapacity extends to all animals, it may safely be assumed to exist in all those forms of animal life which take in solid nutriment, or which live parasitically on other animals or plants, in situations in which they are provided with abundant supplies of protein in a dissolved state. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF ANIMALS. 45 The great majority of the higher plants, on the contrary, • are able to manufacture protein when supplied with carbonic acid, ammoniacal salts, water, and sundry mineral phosphates and sulphates, obtaining the carbon which they require by the decomposition of the carbonic acid, the oxygen of which is disengaged. One essential factor in the performance of this remarkable chemical process is the chlorophyll which these plants contain, and another is the sun's light. Certain animals {Infusoria, Godenterata, Turbellaria) possess chlorophyll, but there is no evidence to show what part it plays in their economy. Some of the higher plants when parasitic, and a great group of the lower plants, the Fungi (which may be parasitic or not), are, however, devoid of chlorophyll, and are consequently totally unable to derive the carbon which they need from carbonic acid. Nevertheless they are sharply distinguished from animals, inasmuch as they are still, for the most part, manufacturers of protein. Thus such a Funo-us as Penicilliuni is able to fabricate all the con- stituents of its body out of ammonium tartrate, sulphate, and phosphate, dissolved in water {see supra, p. 14, note) ; and the yeast- plant nourishes and multiplies with exceeding rapid- ity in water containing sugar, ammonium tartrate, potassium phosphate, calcium phosphate, and magnesium sulphate. Nevertheless, the experiments of Mayer have shown that when peptones are substituted for the ammonium tartrate, the nutrition of the yeast-plant is favored instead of being impeded. So that it would seem that the yeast-plant is able to take in protein compounds and assimilate them, as if it were an animal ; and there can be no reasonable doubt that many parasitic Fungi, such as the JBotrytis Bassiana of the silk-worm caterpillar, the Empusa of the house-fly, and, very probably, the Peronospora of the potato-plant, directly as- similate the protein substances contained in the bodies of the plants and animals which they infest ; nor is it clear that these Fungi are able to maintain themselves upon less fully elaborated nutriment. Cellulose, amyloid, and saccharine compounds were former- ly supposed to be characteristically vegetable products ; but cellulose is found in the tests of Ascidians ; and amyloid and saccharine matters are of very wide, if not universal, occur- rence in animals. And on taking a comprehensive survey of the whole ani- mal and vegetable worlds, the test of locomotion breaks down as completely as does that of nutrition. For it is the rule 46 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. rather than the exception among the lowest plants, that at one stage or other of their existence they should be actively locomotive, their motor organs being usually cilia, altogether similar in character and function to the motor organs of the lowest animals. Moreover, the protoplasmic substance of the body in many of these plants exhibits rhythmically pulsating spaces or contractile vacuoles of the same nature as those characteristic of so many animals. No better illustration of the impossibility of drawing any sharply-defined distinction between animals and plants can be found than that which is supplied by the history of what are commonly termed '•Monads." The name of "Monad" 1 has been commonly applied to minute free or fixed, rounded or oval bodies, provided with one or more long cilia (flagella), and usually provided with a nucleus and a contractile vacuole. Of such bodies, all of which would properly come under the old group of Monadi- dce, the history of a few has been completely worked out ; and the result is that, while some (e. g., Chlamydomoiias, zoospores of JPeronospora and Coleochaite) are locomotive conditions of indubitable plants, others (Hadiolaria, Nocti- luca) are embryonic conditions of as indubitable animals. Yet others (zoospores of Myxomycetes) are embryonic forms of organisms which appear to be as much animals as plants ; inasmuch as in one condition they take in solid nutriment, and in another have the special morphological, if not physio- logical peculiarities of plants; while, lastly, in the case of such monads as those recently so carefully studied by Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale, the morphological characters of which are on the whole animal, while their mode of nutrition is un- known, it is impossible to say whether they should be regarded as animals or as plants. Thus, traced down to their lowest terms, the series of plant forms gradually lose more and more of their distinctive vegetable features, while the series of animal forms part with more and more of their distinctive animal characters, and the two series converge to a common term. The most character- istic morphological peculiarity of the plant is the investment of each of its component cells by a sac, the walls of which contain cellulose, or some closely analogous compound ; and - - 0. F. Miiller, " Historia Vermium," 1773. " Vermis ineonspicuus, sim- plicissimu:?, pellucidus, punctiformis," MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION. 47 the most characteristic physiological peculiarity of the plant is its power of manufacturing protein from chemical com- pounds of a less complex nature. The most characteristic morphological peculiarity of the animal is the absence of any such cellulose investment. 1 The most characteristic physiological peculiarity of the animal is its want of power to manufacture protein out of simpler compounds. The great majority of living things are at once referable to one of the two categories thus defined ; but there are some in which the presence of one or other characteristic mark cannot be ascertained, and others which appear at different periods of their existence to belong to different categories. II. — THE MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF ANIMALS. The simplest form of animal life imaginable would be a protoplasmic body, devoid of motility, maintaining itself by the ingestion of such proteinaceous, fatty, amyloid, and min- eral matters as might be brought into contact with it by ex- ternal agencies ; and increasing by simple extension of its mass. But no animal of this degree of simplicity is' known to exist. The very humblest animals with which w r e are ac- quainted exhibit contractility, and not only increase in size, but, as they grow, divide, and thus undeigo multiplication. In the simplest known animals — the Protozoa — the proto- plasmic substance of the body does not become differentiated into discrete nucleated masses or cells, which by their meta- morphosis give rise to the different tissues of which the adult body is composed. And, in the lowest of the Protozoa, the body has neither a constant form nor any further distinction of parts than a greater density of the peripheral, as com- pared with the central, part of the protoplasm. The first steps in complication are the appearance of one or more rhythmically contractile vacuoles, such as are found in some of the lower plants ; and the segregation of part of the in- 1 No analysis of the substance composing the cysts in which so many of the Protozoa inclose themselves temporarily has yet been made. But it is not im- probable that it may be analogous to cfvitin ; and, if so, it is worthy of remark that, though chitin is a nitrogenous body, it readily yields a substance appar- ently identical with cellulose when heated with the double hyposulphite of copper and ammonia. It is possible, therefore, that the difference between the chitinous investment of an animal and the cellulose investment of a plant may depend upon the proportion of nitrogenous matter which is present in each case in addition to the chitin, 4 48 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED AXIAJALS. terior protoplasm as a rounded mass, the "endoplast" or " nucleus." Other Protozoa advance further and acquire permanent locomotive organs. These may be developed only on one part of the surface of the body, which may be modified into a special organ for their support. In some, a pedicle of attachment is formed, and the body may acquire a dense envelope (Infusoria), or secrete an internal skeleton of calcareous or silicious matter (Foraminifera, Madiolaria) , or fabricate such a skeleton by gluing together extraneous par- ticles (Foraminifera). A mouth and gullet, with an anal aperture, may be formed, and the permeable soft central portion of the protoplasm may be so limited as to give rise to a virtual alimentary tract be- tween these two apertures. The contractile vacuole may be developed into a complicated system of canals (Paramoeci- um), and the endoplast may take on more and more definite- ly the characters of a reproductive organ, that is, may be the focus of origin of germs capable of reproducing the individ- ual ( Vorticella). In fact, rudiments of all the chief system of organs of the higher animals, with the exception, more or less doubtful, of the nervous, are thus sketched out in the Protozoa, just as the organs of the higher plants are sketched out in Caulerpa. In the Metazoa, which constitute the rest of the animal kingdom, the animal, in its earliest condition, is a protoplas- mic mass with a nucleus — is, in short, a Protozoon. But it never acquires the morphological complexity of its adult state by the direct metamorphosis of the protoplasmic matter of this nucleated body — the ovum — into the different tissues. On the contrary, the first step in the development of all the Metazoa is the conversion of the single nucleated body into an aggregation of such bodies of smaller size — the Morula — by a process of division, which usually takes place with great regularity, the ovum dividing first into two segments, which then subdivide, giving rise to four, eight, sixteen, etc., portions, which are the so-called division masses or blasto- ?neres. A similar process takes place in sundry Protozoa and gives rise to a protozoic aggregate, which is strictly comparable to the Morula. But the members of the protozoic aggregate become separate, or at any rate independent existences. What distinguishes the metazoic aggregate is that, though its component blastomeres also retain a certain degree of physi- ological independence, they remain united into one morpho- MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION. 49 logical whole, and their several metamorphoses are so ordered and related to one another that they constitute members of a mutually dependent commonalty. The Metazoa are the only animals which fall under com- mon observation, and have therefore been known from the earliest times. All the higher languages possess general names equivalent to our beast, bird, reptile, fish, insect, and worm ; and this shows the very early perception of the fact ohat, notwithstanding the wonderful diversity of animal forms, they are modeled upon comparatively few great types. In the middle of the last century the founder of modern Taxonomy, Linnaeus, distinguished animals into Mammalia, Aves, Amphibia, Pisces, Insecta, and Vermes, that is to say, he converted common-sense into science by defining and giv- ing precision to the rough distinctions arrived at by ordinary observation. At the end of the century, Lamarck made a most impor- tant advance in general morphology, by pointing out that mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, are formed upon one type or common plan, the essential character of which is the pos- session of a spinal column, interposed between a cerebro-spi- nal and a visceral cavity ; and that in no other animals is the same plan of construction to be discerned. Hence he drew a broad distinction between the former and the latter, as the Vertebrata and the Invertebrata. But the advance of knowledge respecting the structure of invertebrated animals, due chiefly to Swammerdam, Trembley, Reaumur, Peyssonel, Goeze, Roesel, Ellis, Fabricius, O. F. Muller, Lyonet, Pallas, and Cuvier, speedily proved that the Invertebrata are not framed upon one fundamental plan, but upon several ; and, in 1795, Cuvier 1 showed that, at fewest, three morphological types, as distinct from one another as they are from that of the vertebrated animals, are distinguishable among the In- vertebrata. These he named — I. Mollusques ; II. Insectes et Vers ; III. Zoophytes. In the " Regne animal " (1816), those terms are Latinized, Anlmalia Mollusea, Articulata, and JRa- diata. Thus, says Cuvier : " It will be found that there ex- ist four principal forms, four general plans, if it may thus be expressed, on which all animals appear to have been modeled ; and the ulterior divisions of which, under whatever title natu- ralists may have designated them, are merely slight modifica- tions, founded on the development or addition of certain parts. 1 Tableau elementaire de l'Histoire des Animaux. An vi. 50 THE ANATOMY OF INYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. These four common plans are those of the Vertebrata, the MoU lusca, the Articulately and the Radiata." For extent, variety, and exactness of knowledge, Cuvier was, beyond all comparison, the greatest anatomist who has ever lived ; but the absence of two conditions rendered it impossible that his survey of the animal kingdom should be exhaustive, grand and comprehensive as it was. Up to the time of Cuvier's death in 1832, microscopic in- vestigation was in its infancy, and hence the great majority of the lowest forms were either unknown or little understood ; and it was only in the third decade of the present century that Rathke, Dollinger, and Von Baer, commenced that won- derful series of exact researches into embryology which Von Baer organized into a special branch of morphology, develop- ing all its most important consequences and raising it to its proper position, as the criterion of morphological theories. Upon embryological grounds Von Baer arrived at the same conclusion as Cuvier, that there are four common plans of animal structure. In the course of the last half-century the activity of anat- omists and embryologists has been prodigious, and it may be reasonably doubted whether any form of animal life re- mains to be discovered which will not be found to accord with one or other of the common plans now known. But at the same time this increase of knowledge has abolished the broad lines of demarkation which formerly appeared to sepa- rate one common plan from another. Even the hiatus between the Vertebrata and the Inver- tebrate!, is partly, if not wholly, bridged over; and though among the Invertebrata there is no difficulty in distinguish- ing the more completely differentiated representatives of such types or common plans as those of the Arthropoda, the Annelida, the Mollusca, the Tnnicata, the Ecliinodermata, the Ccdenterata, and the Porifera, yet every year brings forth fresh evidence to the effect that, just as the plan of the plant is not absolutely distinct from that of the animal, so that of the Vertebrate has its points of community with that of certain of the Invertebrates ; that the Arthropod, the Mol- lusk, and the Echinoderm plans are united by that of the lower worms; and that the plan of the latter is separated by no very great differences from that of the Ccelenterate and that of the Sponge. Whatever speculative views may be held or rejected as to the origin of the diversities of animal form, the facts of anat- ANXULOSE DIFFERENTIATION. 51 omy and development compel the morphologist to regard the whole of the Metazoa as modifications of one actual or ideal primitive type, which is a sac with a double cellular wall, inclosing a central cavity and open at one end. This is what Haeckel terms a Gastrwa. The inner wall of the sac is the hypoblast {endoderm of the adult), the outer the epiblast {ectoderm). Between the two, in all but the very lowest Metazoa, a third layer, the mesoblast [mesoderm of the adult), makes its appearance. In the Porifera, the terminal aperture of the gastrasa becomes the egestive' opening of the adult animal, and the ingestive apertures are numerous secondary pore-like aper- tures formed by the separation of adjacent cells of the ec- toderm and endoderm. The body may become variously branched, a fibrous or spicular endoskeleton is usually de- veloped in the ectoderm, and no perivisceral cavity is de- veloped. There are no appendages for locomotion or pre- hension ; no nervous system nor sefnsory organs are known to exist; nor are there any circulatory, respiratory, renal, or generative organs. In the Coelenterata, the terminal aperture of the gastraea becomes the mouth, and, if pores perforate the body-walls, they do not subserve the ingestion of food. There is no sep- arate perivisceral cavity, but, in many, an enter occele or sys- tem of cavities, continuous with, but more or less separate from, the digestive cavity, extends through the body. Pre- hensile appendages, tentacula, are developed in great variety. A chitinous exoskeleton appears in some, a calcareous or chit- inous endoskeleton in others. There are no circulatorv, re- spiratory, or renal organs (though it is possible that certain cells in the Porpitm, e. g., may have a uropoietic function); but special genital organs make their appearance, as do a definitely-arranged nervous system and organs of sense. The lowest Tarbellaria are on nearly the same grade of organization as the lower Coelenterata, but the thick meso- derm is traversed by canals which constitute a icater-vascular system. In the adult state these canals open, on the one side, into the interstices of the mesodermal tissues, and, on the other, communicate with the exterior. Their analogy to the contractile vacuoles of the Infusoria on the one hand, and to the segmental organs of the Annelids on the other, lead me to think that they are formed by a splitting of the mesoblast, and that they thus represent that form of perivisceral cavity which I have termed a schizocoele. A nervous system, con- 52 THE ANATOMY OF IXYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. sisting of a single or double ganglion with two principal lon- gitudinal nerve-cords, is found in many ; and there may be eyes and auditory sacs. Upon this foundation a gradual complication of form is based, brought about by — 1. The elongation of the bilaterally symmetrical body and the formation of a chitinous exoskeleton. 2. The development of a secondary aperture near the an- terior end of the body, which becomes the permanent mouth. 3. The division of the mesoblast into successive segments (somites). 4. The development of two nervous ganglia in each somite. 5. The outgrowth of a pair of appendages from each so- mite, and their segmentation. 6. The gradual specialization of the somites into cephalic, thoracic and abdominal groups ; and that of their appendages into sense organs, jaws, locomotive limbs, and respiratory or- gans. 7. The conversion of the schizoccele into a spacious peri- visceral cavity containing blood ; the reduction of the water- vascular system, and the appearance of pseudo-haemal vessels ; and the replacement of these, in the higher forms, by a heart, arteries, and veins, which contain blood. 8. The conversion of the simple inner sac of the gastraea into a highly-complex alimentary canal, with special glandu- lar appendages, representing the liver and the kidneys. 9. A similar differentiation of the genital apparatus. 10. A gradual complication of the eye, w 7 hich, in its most perfect form, presents a series of crystal-clear conical rods, disposed perpendicularly to the transparent corneal region of the chitinous exoskeleton, and connected by their inner ends with the optic nerves of the prae-cesophageal ganglia. By such modifications as these the plan of the simple Turbellarian gradually passes into that of the highest Ar- thropod. Starting from the same point, if the mesoblast does not become distinctly segmented * if few, probably not more than three, pairs of ganglia are formed ; if there are no seg- mented appendages, but the chief locomotive organ is a mus- cular foot developed in the neural aspect of the body ; if, in the place of the chitinous exoskeleton, a shell is secreted by a specially modified part of the haemal wall termed the man- tle ; if the schizoccele is converted into a blood-cavity, which communicates with the exterior by an organ of Bojanus, which THE PLAN OF THE ECHINODERMS. 53 appears to represent the water-vascular system and the seg- mental organs ; and if, along with these changes, the aliment- ary, circulatory, respiratory, genital, and sensory organs take on special characters, we arrive at the complete Molluscan plan. From the Turbellarian to the Tunicate, or Ascidian, the passage is indicated, if not effected, by Palanoglossus, which, in its larval state, is comparable to an Appendicular ia with- out its caudal appendage. On the other hand, the large pharynx of the Tunicata and the circle of tentacula around the oral aperture, with the single ganglion, approximate them to the Polyzoa. In the perforation of the pharynx by lateral apertures, which communicate with the exterior, either di- rectly or by the intermediation of an atrial cavity, the Tuni- cata resemble only Balanoglossiis and the Vertebrata. The axial skeleton of the caudaJ appendage has no parallel except in the vertebrate notochord. In the structure of the heart and the regular reversal of the direction of its contractions, the Tunicata stand alone. The general presence of a test solidified by cellulose is a marked peculiarity, but in esti- mating its apparent singularity the existence of cellulose as a constituent of chitin must be remembered. Finally, the tadpole-like larvae of many Ascidians are comparable only to the Cercarice of Trematodes, on the one hand, and to ver- tebrate larval forms on the other. Yet another apparently very distinct type is met with in the extensive group of the Echinodermata. . In all the other Metazoa, except the Porifera and Ccelen- terata, the plan of the body is, obviously, bilaterally sym- metrical, the halves of the body on each side of a median ver- tical plane being similar. Any disturbance of this symmetrv, such as is found in some Arthropoda and in many Mollusca, arises from the predominant development of one half. But, in a Sea-urchin or Starfish, five or more similar sets of parts are disposed around a longitudinal axis, which has the mouth at one end and the anus at the other ; there is a radial sym- metry, as in a sea-anemone or a Ctenophoran. Nevertheless, close observation shows that, as is also the case in the Actinia or Ctenophoran, this radial symmetry is never perfect, and that the body is really bilaterally symmetrical in relation to a median plane which traverses the centre of length of one of the radiating met a meres. Another marked peculiarity of the Echinoderm type is 54 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. the general, if not universal, presence of a system of " am- bulacra! vessels" consisting of a circular canal around the mouth, whence canals usually arise and follow the middle line of each of the ambulacral metameres. And, in the typical Echinoderm, these canals give off prolongations which enter certain diverticula of the body-wall, the pedicels or suckers. All Echinoderms have a calcareous endoskeleton. In the chapter allotted to these animals, it will be shown that they are modifications of the Turbellarian type, brought about by a singular series of changes undergone by the endo- derm and mesoderm of the larva or Echinopoedium. III. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF ANIMALS, AND THE MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF THEIR ORGANS. Regarded as machines for doing certain kinds of work, animals differ from one another in the extent to which this work is subdivided. Each subordinate group of actions or functions is allotted to a particular portion of the body, which thus becomes the organ of those functions ; and the extent to which this division of physiological labor is carried differs in degree within the limits of each common plan, and is the chief cause of the diversity in the working out of the common plan of a group exhibited by its members. Moreover, there are certain types which never attain the same degree of physi- ological differentiation as others do. Thus, some of the Protozoa attain a grade of physiological complexity as high as that which is reached by the lower Me- tazoa. And, notwithstanding the multiplicity of its parts, no Echinoderm is so highly differentiated a physiological ma- chine as is a snail. A mill with ten pairs of millstones need not be a more complicated machine than a mill w T ith one pair ; but if a mill have two pairs of millstones, one for coarse and one for fine grinding, so arranged that the substance ground passes from one to the other, then it is a more complicated machine — a machine of higher order — than that with ten pairs of similar grindstones. In other words, it is not mere multiplication of organs which constitutes physiological differentiation ; but the multiplication of organs for different functions in the first place, and the degree in which they are coordinated, so as to work to a common end, in the second place. Thus, a lobster is a higher animal, from a physiological point of view, than a THE TEGUMENTARY SYSTEM. 55 Cyclops, not because it has more distinguishable organs, but because these organs are so modified as to perform a much greater variety of functions, while they are all coordinated toward the maintenance of the animal, by its wellrdeveloped nervous system and sense-organs. But it is impossible to say that, e. g., the Arthropoda, as a whole, are physiologically higher than the Mollusca, inasmuch as the simplest embodi- ments of the common plan of the Arthropoda are less differ- entiated physiologically than the great majority of Mollusks. I may now rapidly indicate the mode in which physiologi- cal differentiation is effected in the different groups of organs of the body among the Metazoa. Integumentary Organs. — In the lowest Metazoa, the integ- ument and the ectoderm are identical, but, so soon as a mes- oderm is developed, the layer of the mesoderm wmich is in contact with the octoderm becomes virtually part of the in- tegument, and in all the higher animals is distinguished as the dermis (enderon), while the ectodermal cells constitute the epidermis (eederoti). The connective tissue and muscles of the integument are exclusively developed in the enderon ; while, from the epidermis, all cuticular and cellular exoskele- tal parts, and all the integumentary glands, are developed. The latter are always involutions of the epidermis. The hard protective skeletons in all invertebrate Metazoa, except the Porifera, the Act i n ozoa, the Echinodermata, and the Tuni- cata, are cuticular structures, which may be variously impreg- nated with calcareous salts formed on the outer surface of the epidermic cells. In the Porifera, the calcareous or silicious deposit takes place within the ectoderm itself, and probably the same pro- cess occurs, to a greater or less extent, in the Actinozoa. In those Tunicata which possess a test, it appears to be a struct- ure sui generis, consisting of a gelatinous basis excreted by the ectoderm, in which cells detached from the ectoderm divide, multiply, and give rise to a deposit of cellulose. The test may take on the structure of cartilage or even of connec- tive tissue. In the Vertebrata alone do we find hard exo- skeletal parts formed by the cornification and cohesion of epi- dermic cells. In the Actinozoa and the Echinodermata. the hard skele- 7 ton is, in the main, though perhaps not wholly, the result of calcification of elements of the mesoderm. In some Mollusks portions of the mesoderm are converted into true cartilage, 56 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. while the enderon of the integument often becomes the seat of calcareous deposit. The endoskeleton and the dermal exo- skeleton of the Vertebrata are cellular (cartilage, notochord) or fibrous (connective tissue) modifications of the mesoderm, which may become calcified (bone, dentine). Recent investi- gations tend to show that the enamel of the teeth is derived from the ectoderm. The Alimentary Apparatus. — From the simple sac of the Hydra or aproctous Turbellarian, we pass to the tubular ali- mentary tract of the proctuchous Turbellaria. In the Hoti- fera and Polyzoa there is a marked distinction into buccal cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, and intestines ; while distinct salivary, hepatic, and renal glands, are found in the majority of the higher invertebrates, and, not unfrequently, glands secreting an odorous or colored fluid appear in the region of the termination of the alimentary canal. The oral and gastric regions are armed with cuticular teeth in many Invertebrata / but teeth formed by the calcifi- cation of papillary elevations of the enderon of the lining of the mouth are confined to the Vertebrata ; unless, as seems probable, the teeth of the Echinidea have a similar origin. The lining membrane of the oral cavity is capable of being everted, as a proboscis, in many Invertebrata. The margins of the mouth may be raised into folds, armed with cuticular plates. In the Vertebrata, the jaws are such folds, supported by endoskeletal cartilages, belonging to the system of the visceral arches, or by bones developed in and around them ; but, in the Arthropoda, what are usually termed jaws are modified limbs. The Blood and Circulatory Apparatus. — In the Coelen- terata, the somatic cavity, or enteroccele, is in free commu- nication with the digestive cavity, and not unfrequently communicates with the exterior by other apertures. The fluid which it contains represents blood ; it is moved by the con- tractions of the body, and generally by cilia developed on the endodermal lining of the enteroccele. In the Turbellaria, Trematoda, and Cestoidea. the lacunae of the mesoderm and the interstitial fluid of its tissues are the only representatives of a blood-vascular system. It is probable that these com- municate directly with the terminal ramifications of the water- vascular system. In the Motifera, a spacious perivisceral cavity separates the mesoderm into two layers, the splanch- THE BLOOD-SYSTEM. 57 nopleure, which forms the enderon of the alimentary canal, and the somatopleure, which constitutes the enderon of the integument. The terminations of the water- vessels open into this cavity. In Annelids, there is a similar perivisceral cavity communicating in the same way with the segmental organs ; but, in most, there is, in addition, a system of canals with contractile walls, which, in some, communicate freely with the perivisceral cavity, but, in the majority, are shut off from it. These canals are filled by a clear, usually non-corpuscu- lated fluid, which may be red or green, and constitute the pseud-hoemal system. The fluid which occupies the perivis- ceral cavity contains nucleated corpuscles, and has the characters of ordinary blood. It seems probable that the fluid of the pseud-haemal vessels, as it contains a substance resembling haemoglobin, represents a sort of respiratory blood. In the Arthropoda, no segmental organs or pseud-haemal vessels are known. In the lowest forms, the perivisceral cavity and the interstices of the tissues represent the whole blood-system, and colorless blood-cells float in their fluid con- tents. In the higher forms, a valvular heart, with arteries and capillaries, appears, but the venous system remains more or less lacunar. In the Mollusca, the same gradual differen- tiation of the blood-vascular system is observable. In very many, if not all, the blood-cavities communicate directly with the exterior by the " organs of Bojanus " — which resemble very simple segmental organs, and appear to be always asso- ciated with the renal apparatus. In the Vertebrata, Amphioxus has a system of blood-ves- sels, with contractile walls, and no distinct heart. In all the other Vertebrates there is a heart with at fewest three chambers (sinus venosus, atrium, ventricle), arteries, capil- laries, and veins, and a system of lymphatic vessels connected with the veins. The lymphatic fluid consists of a colorless plasma, with equally colorless nucleated corpuscles ; the blood- plasma contains, in addition, red corpuscles, which are nucle- ated in Ichthyopsida and Sauropsida, but have no nucleus in the Mammalia. The lymphatic vessels always communi- cate with the interstitial lacunae of the tissues, and in the lower Vertebrates are themselves, to a great extent, irregular sinuses. The venous system presents many large sinuses in the lower Vertebrates ; while, in the higher forms, these sinuses are for the most part replaced by definite vessels with muscular walls. But the " serous cavities " remain as vast 58 THE ANATOMY OF IX VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. lymphatic lacunae. Valves make their appearance in the lym- phatics and in the veins, and the heart becomes subdivided in such a manner as to bring about a more and more complete separation of the systemic circulatory apparatus from that which supplies the respiratory organs. The Respiratory System. — In the lower Metazoa respira- tion is effected by the general surface of the body. In the Annelids, processes of the integument, which are sometimes branched and usually are abundantly ciliated and supplied with pseud-haemal vessels, give rise to branch ice. Branchiae abundantly supplied with blood-vessels, but never ciliated, attain a great development in the Crustacea. The access of fresh water to them is secured by their attachment to some of the limbs ; and, in the higher Crustaceans, one of the ap- pendages, the second maxilla, serves as an accessory organ of respiration. Although especially adapted for aquatic res- piration, they are converted into air-breathing organs in the laud-crabs, being protected and kept moist in a large cham- ber formed by the carapace. In some mollusks (e. g., Pteropoda\ the delicate lining membrane of the pallial cavity serves as the respiratory organ ; but, in most, branched or laminated processes of the body give rise to distinct branchiae. The mantle becomes an accessory organ of respiration, being so modified as to direct, or to cause, the flow of currents of water over the branchiae contained in its cavity. In many adult urodele Amphibia (Perennibranchiatci), and in the embrj'onic condition of all Amphibia and of manv fishes, branchiae of a similar character, abundantly supplied with blood-vessels, are attached to more or fewer of the visceral arches. In all these cases the branchiae are external, and are de- veloped from the integument. In Crustaceans and Mollusks the blood with which they are supplied is returning to the heart ; while, in the Vertebrata mentioned, it is flowing from the heart ; and it will be observed that the gradual per- fectioning of the respiratory machinery consists, first, in the outgrowth of parts of the integument specially adapted to subserve the interchange between the gases contained in the blcod and those in the surrounding medium ; secondly, in the increase of the surface of the branchiae, so as to enable them to do their work more rapidly ; thirdly, in the development of accessory organs, by which the flow of water over the branchiae is rendered definite and constant, and may be in- THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM. 59 creased or diminished in accordance with the needs of the economy. It is probable that the water-vascular system and the seg- mental organs of Turbellarians and Annelids, the cloacal tubes of the Gephyrea and of some Holothuridea, the ambu- lacral vesicles of the Echinoderms, and the large pharyngeal cavity of the Polyzoa, to a greater or less extent, subserve respiration, and constitute internal respiratory organs. In Myriapoda and Jnsecta, the tracheae, — tubes which open on the surface of the body and contain air, and are curiously similar in their distribution to the water-vessels of the worms — constitute a very complete internal aerial respira- tory apparatus. In Arachnida, tracheae may exist alone, or be accom- panied by folded pulmonary sacs, or the latter may exist alone, as in the Scorpion. In this case, these lungs are sup- plied by blood which is returning from the heart. In these animals, the flow of air into and out of the air- cavities is governed by the contractions of muscles of the body, disposed so as to alter its vertical and longitudinal dimensions. In the higher foims, the entrance and exit of air is regulated by valves, placed at the external openings (stigmata) of the trachea?, and provided with muscles, by which they can be shut. In the Enteropneusta and the Tunicata a new form of internal aquatic respiratory apparatus appears. The large pharynx is perforated by lateral apertures, which place its cavity in communication with the exterior ; and water, taken in by the mouth, is driven through' these branchial clefts and aerates the blood which circulates in their interspaces. The respiratory apparatus of Ampldoxm, of all adult fishes, and of the tadpoles of the higher anurous Amphibia, in a certain stage of their existence, is of an essentially simi- lar character. The accessory respiratory apparatus lor the maintenance and the regulation of the currents of water over the gills is furnished by the visceral arches and their mus- cles ; and the respiratory blood flows from the heart. In Mollusks which live on land (Pidmogasteropoda), the lining wall of the mantle cavity becomes folded and highly vascular, and subserves the aeration of the venous blocd, which flows through it on its way to the heart. The lung is here a modification of the integument, and might be termed an external lung. The lungs of the air-breathing Vertebrata, on the contrary, are diverticula of the alimentary canal, pos- 60 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. terior to the hindermost of the visceral arches. They receive their blood from the hindermost aortic arch. It therefore flows from the heart. The gradual improvement of these lungs as respiratory machines is effected, first, by the increase of the surface over which the venous blood brought to the lungs is distributed; secondly, by changes in the walls of the cavity in which the lungs are contained, by which that cavity gradually becomes shut off from the peritoneal cham- ber, and divided from it by a muscular partition. Concur- rently with these modifications, a series of alterations takes place in the accessory apparatus of respiration, whereby the machinery of inspiration, which, in the lower Vertebrata, is a buccal force-pump, which drives air into the lungs, in the same way as water is driven through the branchiae, is replaced by a thoracic suction-pump, which draws air into the lungs by dilatation of the walls of the closed cavity in which they are contained. Along with these changes, modifications of the heart take place, in virtue of which one-half of its total mechanical power becomes more and more exclusively ap- propriated to the task of driving the blood through the lungs. The term *' double circulation " applied to the course of the blood in the highest Vertebrata is, however, a misnomer. In the highest, as in the lowest, of these animals, the blood com- pletes but one circle, and the respiratory organ is in the course of the outward current. Many animals are truly amphibious, combining aquatic and aerial respiratory organs. Thus, among Mollusks, Ampullaria and Onchidum com- bine branchiae with pulmonary organs ; many Teleostean fishes have the lining membrane of the enlarged branchial chamber vascular and competent to subserve aerial respiration. And in the Ganoids and Teleostel the presence of an air-bladder, which is both functionally and morphologically of the same nature as a lung, is very common. But, in the majority of the Teleostei, the air-bladder is turned aside from its pulmo- nary function to subserve mechanical purposes, in affecting the specific gravity of the body. On the other hand, in the Ganoids and Dipnoi, the wdiole series of modifications by which the air-bladder passes into the lung are patent. In such lower Amphibia as Proteus and Menobranchus, bran- chial respiration is predominant, and the lungs are subsidi- ary ; but, in the higher, the lungs acquire greater importance, while the branchiae diminish, and eventually disappear. THE UROPOIETIC SYSTEM. 61 The Uropoietic System. — Uropoietic organs, distinct from the alimentary canal, are probably represented by the water- vascular system and segmental organs of the worms. The " organs of Bojanus " of Mollusks are sacs or tubes opening, on the one side, on the exterior of the body, and, on the other, into some part of the blood-vascular system. So far, as Gegenbaur has shown, they resemble the segmental organs of Annelids. In the majority of the Jfollusca, some part of the wall of the organ of Bojanus is in close relation with the venous system near the heart, and the nitrogenous waste of the body is here eliminated from the venous blood. In the Vertebrata, the? renal apparatus is constructed en the same principle. If for simplicity's sake we reduce a mammalian kidney to a ureter with a single uriniferous tubule, it cor- responds with an organ of Bojanus, so far as it contains a cavity communicating with the exterior at one end, and hav- ing a vascular plexus — the Malpighian body — in intimate contact with the opposite end. In the adult mammal there is no direct communication between the urinary duct and the blood-vascular system. But, inasmuch as recent researches have proved that the ureter is formed by subdivision of the Wolffian duct, and that the Wolffian duct is primitively a di- verticulum of the peritoneal cavity, and remains for a longer or shorter time (permanently, in some of the lower Verte- brata, as Myxine) in communication therewith ; and since it has further been shown that the peritoneal cavity communi- cates directly with the lymphatics, and therefore indirectly with the veins ; it follows that the vertebrate kidney is an extreme modification of an organ, the primitive type of which is to be found in the organ of Bojanus of the Mollusk, and in the segmental organ of the Annelid ; and, to go still lower, in the water-vascular system of the Turbellarian. And this, in its lowest form, is so similar to the more complex conditions of the contractile vacuole of a Protozoon, that it is hardly straining analogy too far to regard the latter as the primary form of uropoietic as well as of internal respiratory apparatus. The Nervous System. — In its essential nature, a nerve is a definite tract of living substance, through which the molec- ular changes which occur in any one part of the organism are conveyed to and affect some other part. Thus, if, in the simple protoplasmic body of a Protozoon, a stimulus applied to one part of the body w T ere more readily transmitted to some other part, along a particular tract of the protoplasm, 62 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. that tract would be a virtual nerve, although it might have no optical or chemical characters which should enable us to distinguish it from the rest of the protoplasm. It is important to have this definition of nerve clearly before us in considering the question whether the lowest animals possess nerves or not. Assuredly nothing of the kind is discernible, by such means of investigation as we at present possess, in Protozoa or Porifera ; but any one who has attentively w T atched the ways of a Colpoda, or still more of a Vorticella, will probably hesitate to deny that they possess some aj3paratus by which external agencies give rise to localized and coordinated movements. And when we reflect that the essential elements of the highest nervous system — the fibrils into which the axis-fibres break up — are filaments of the extremest tenuity, devoid of any definite structural or other characters, and that the nervous system of animals only becomes conspicuous by the gathering to- gether of these filaments into nerve-fibres and nerves, it will be obvious that there are as strong morphological, as there are physiological, grounds for suspecting that a nervous sys- tem may exist very low r dow^n in the animal scale, and possi- bly even in plants. The researches of Kleinenberg, which may be readily veri- fied, have shown that, in the common Hydra, the inner ends of the cells of the ectoderm are prolonged into delicate pro- cesses, which are eventually continued into very fine longi- tudinal filaments, forming a layer between the ectoderm and the endoderm. Kleinenberg terms these neuro-muscular elements, and thinks that they represent both nerve and muscle in their undifferentiated state. But it appears to me that while the assumed contractility of these fibres might account for the shortening of the body of the Polyp, they can have nothing to do with its lengthening. As the latter movements are at least as vigorous as the former, we are therefore obliged to assume sufficient contractility in the general constituents of the body to account for them. And if so, what ground is there for supposing that this contractility can be exerted by only one tissue w T hen the body shortens ? To my mind, it is more probable that " Kleinenberg's fibres " are solely inter- n uncial in function, and therefore the primary form of nerve. The prolongations of the ectodermal cells have indeed a strangely close resemblance to those of the cells of the olfac- tory and other sense-organs in the Vertebrata * and it seems • THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 63 probable that they are the channels by which impulses affect- ing any of the cells of the ectoderm are conveyed to other cells and excite their contraction. The researches of Eimer ' upon the nervous system of the Ctenophora are in perfect accordance with this view. The mesoderm is traversed in all directions by very fine fibrils, varying in diameter from 30 ^ 00 to T 2 | 00 of an inch. These fibrils present numerous minute varicosities, and, at intervals, larger swellings which contain nuclei, each with a large and strongly refracting nucleolus. These fibrils take a straight course, branch dichotomouslv, and end in still finer filaments, which also divide, but become no smaller. They terminate partly in ganglionic cells, partly in muscular fibres, partly in the cells of the ectoderm and endoderm. Many of the nerve- fibrils take a longitudinal course beneath the centre of each series of paddles, and these are accompanied by ganglionic cells, which become particularly abundant toward the aboral end of each series. The eight bands meet in a central tract at the aboral pole of the body; but Eimer doubts the nervous nature of the cellular mass which lies beneath the lithocyst and supports the eye-spots. The nervous system of the Ctenophoran is, therefore, just such as would arise in ITjdra, if the development of a thick mesoderm gave rise to the separation and elongation of Kleinenberg's fibres, and if special bands of such fibres, developed in relation with the chief organs of locomotion, united in a central tract directly connected with the higher sensory organs. We have here, in short, virtual, though in- completely differentiated, brain and nerves. AH recent investigation tends more and more completely to establish the following conclusions : firstly, that the central ganglia of the nervous system in all animals are derived from the ectoderm; secondly, that all the nerves of the sensory organs terminate in cells of the ectoderm ; thirdly, that ail motor nerves end in the substance of the muscular fibres to which they are distributed. So that, in the highest animals, the nervous system is essentially similar to that of the lowest; the difference consisting, in part, in the proportional size of the nerve-centres, and, in part, in the gathering together of the internuncial filaments into bundles, having a definite arrangement, which are the nerves, in the ordinary anatomical sense of the term. 1 " Zoologiseln Studien auf Capri." Leipsic, 1873. 5 64 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. And as respects the ectodermal cells which constitute the fundamental part of the organs of the special senses, it is becoming clear that the more perfect the sensory apparatus, the more completely do these sensigenous cells take on the form of delicate rods or filaments. Whether we consider the organs of the lateral ]ine in fishes and amphibia, the gusta- tory bulbs, the olfactory cells, the auditory cells, or the elements of the retina, this rule holds good. Every one of the organs of the higher senses makes its appearance in the animal series as a part of the ectoderm, the cells of which have undergone a slight modification. In the case of the eye, accessory structures, consisting of vari- ously-colored masses of pigment, which surround the visual cells, and of a transparent refracting cuticular or cellular structure which lies superficially to them — a rudimentary choroid and cornea — are next added. The highest form of compound Arthropod eye differs from this only in the differ- entiation of the layer of sensigenous cells into the crystalline cones and their appendages, and it has not been clearly made out that the simple eyes of most other Invertebrata have undergone any further change. But in Nautilus the nerve-cells and choroid line the walls of a deep cup open externally ; which, though its development has not been traced, may be safely assumed to result from the involution of the retinal ectoderm. It may be compared to an arthropod compound eye become concave instead of convex. In the higher Cephalopoda, the margins of the ocular pouch unite and give rise to a true cornea, which, however, frequently remains perforated, and a crystalline lens is de- veloped. In the higher Vertebrata the retina is still a modi- fied portion of the ectoderm. For, inasmuch as the anterior cerebral vesicle is formed by involution of the epiblast, and the optic vesicle is a diverticulum of the anterior cerebral vesicle, it necessarily follows that the outer wall of the optic vesicle is really part of the ectoderm, its inner fa, horizonial ; E and E, vertical sections of helicoid form. In E the chambers of each turn of the spiral overlap their predecessors and conceal them, as in the genus Nwnmulites. reaches the surface and gives off pseudopodia all over the body. Hence, while the hard parts of the Imperforata form a sort of exoskeleton, those of the Perforata have rather the nature of an endoskeleton. The simplest skeletons are spherical or flask-shaped, and single-chambered. # But complication arises by the addition of new chambers, which may form a linear series, or be coiled upon one another in various ways, or be irregularly aggre- gated. Moreover, the new chambers may overlap those al- ready formed in different degrees, and the interspaces between the walls of the chambers may be variously filled up by sec- ondary deposition until such large and apparently compli- cated bodies as the Nummulites are built up. The Foraminifera are almost all marine animals, living in the sea, from the surface to great depths, sometimes free, and" sometimes attached to other bodies. The investigations of Major Owen, confirmed and extend- ed by the recent work of H. M. S. Challenger, have proved that such forms as Globigerina, Pulvimdaria, and Orbidina, 6 80 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. constantly occur at the surface of all temperate and tropical seas, and, together with the Radiolaria and the diatoma- ceous plants which accompany them, form an important in- gredient in the food of pelagic animals, such as the Salpce. It is no less certain that, at all depths down to 2,400 fath- oms or thereabouts, Globigerinoe in all stages of growth, and containing more or less protoplasmic matter, are found at the bottom mixed with the cases of the surface Diatoms and the skeletons of Radiolaria. The proportion of Globigerince, Orbulince, and Pulv miliaria?, in the deep-sea mud increases with the depth until, at depths beyond 1,000 fathoms, the sea-bottom is composed of a fine, chalky ooze made up of little more than the remains of these Foraminifera and their associated Diatoms and Radiolaria. It may be regarded as certain, therefore, that some of the chalky ooze arises from the precipitation to the bottom of the skeletons of dead Globigerince, Pidvinularice, and Orbulince, and it may be that the whole has this origin. On the other hand, it may be that a greater or smaller proportion of these Foraminifera really live at the bottom, as their congeners are known to do at less depths. It has been said that the condition of the surface-waters and sea-bottom which has just been described obtains in all temperate and hot seas ; or, speaking roughly, for 55° on either side of the equator. Toward the northern and south- ern limits of this zone the Foraminifera diminish, while Ra- diolaria remain and Diatomacece increase in proportion, so that, in the circumpolar areas north and south of 60° in each hemisphere, the surface-organisms are chiefly such as have silicious skeletons. In accordance with this condition of the surface-life, the ooze covering the sea-bottom in these regions is no longer calcareous but silicious, being composed of the cases of Diatoms and the skeletons of Radiolaria often largely mixed with ice, drifted mud, stones, gravel, and bowl- ders. If we suppose the globe to be uniformly covered with an ocean 1,000 fathoms deep, the solid land forming its bottom would be out of reach of rain, waves, and other agents of degradation, and no sedimentary deposits w T ould be formed. But if Foraminifera and Diatoms, following the same laws of distribution as at present obtain, were introduced into this ocean, the fine rain of their silicious and calcareous hard parts would commence, and a circumpolar cap of silicious deposit would begin to make its appearance in the north and PROTOZOA AS ROCK-BUILDERS. 81 in the south ; while the intermediate zone would be covered with Globigerina ooze, containing a comparatively small pro- portion of silicious matter. The thickness of the calcareo- silicious and silicious beds thus formed would be limited only by time and the depth of the ocean. These strata, once ac- cumulated, would be liable to all those influences of percolat- ing moisture and subterranean heat which are known to suf- fice to convert silicious matters into opal, or quartzite, and calcareous matters into the various forms of limestone and marble. And such metamorphic agencies might more or less completely obliterate the traces of their primitive structure. But yet other changes might be effected. At the present day, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Agulhas Bank and else- where, at no great depths (103 to 300 fathoms) the Fora- miniferal mud is undergoing a metamorphosis of another character. The chambers of the Foraminifera become filled by a green silicate of iron and alumina, which penetrates into even their finest tubuli, and takes exquisite and almost in- destructible casts of their interior. The calcareous matter is then dissolved away, and the casts are left, constituting a fine dark sand, which, when crushed, leaves a greenish mark, and is known as " green-sand." Moreover, the researches of the Challenger have shown that in great areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans over which the sea has a depth exceeding 2,400 fathoms — areas in some cases of many thousand square miles in superficies — the bottom is covered not by Globigerina ooze, but by a fine red clay, which is also a silicate of iron and alumina. In this clay no remains of Globigerina or other calcareous organisms are found ; but, where these great depths gradually pass into shal- lower water, they make their appearance in a fragmentary condition — gradually becoming more and more perfect as the depth diminishes to 2,400 fathoms or thereabouts. Nevertheless the Globigerince and other Foraminifera abound at the surface over these areas as they do elsewhere, and their remains must be rained down upon it. Why they disappear, and what relation the red-clay mud has to them, is a problem not yet satisfactorily solved. It has been suggested that they are dissolved and that the red clay is merely the insoluble residue, left after the calcareous portion of their skeletons has disappeared. In this case the red clay, like the Globigerina ooze, the silicious mud, and the green-sand, will be an indirect product of living action. Metamorphic processes operating upon clay, however, may 82 THE AXATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. convert it into slate ; and thus, all the fundamental minerals of which rock-masses are composed may have formed part of living organisms, though no trace of their origin may be dis- cernible in them in their final state. Paleontology lends much support to the view that what is here suggested as a theoretically possible origin of much of the superficial crust of the globe may have been its actual origin. The nummulitic limestones of the Eocene epoch cover an enormous area of Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and India. And their chief mass is made up of the more or less metamorphosed remains of JForaminifera. The beds of chalk which underlie the nummulitic lime- stones, and occupy a still greater area, are essentially iden- tical with the Globigerina ooze, the species of Globigerina found in it being indistinguishable from those now livincr. The remains of i oraminifera have been detected in the lime- stones of all epochs as far as the Silurian, and Ehrenberg dis- covered that an old Silurian green-sand, near St. Petersburg, is composed of casts of Foraminifera just such as are now being formed in the Gulf of Mexico. And if the JEozoon C ana- dense be, as it appears to be, nothing but an incrusting form of Foraminifer, the existence of these oganisms is carried back to an epoch far beyond that at which any other evidence of life has yet been found. So that it is possible that, as Wy- ville Thomson has sug-gested, the enormously thick " azoic " slaty and other rocks, wmich constitute the Laurentian and Cambrian formations, may be to a great extent the metamor- phosed products of Foraminiferal life. Hence the words of Linnaeus may be literally true : " Petrefaeta non a calce, sed calx a petrefactis. Sic lapides ab animalibus, nee vice versa. Sic rupes saxei non primaevi, sed temporis filiae." And there may be no part of the common rocks, which enter into the earth's crust, which has not passed through a living organism at one time or another. II. THE EXDOPLASTICA. 1. The Radiolaeia. — Most species of the genus Actino- phrys or " sun-animalcule," which is common in ponds, are simply free-swimmino; mvxopods with stiffish pseudopodia, which radiate from all sides of the globular body. The sub- stance of the latter presents one or more " contractile spaces " THE RADIOLARIA. 83 or "vacuoles," which, rhythmically, become distended with water, and are then obliterated by the contraction of the sur- rounding protoplasm. But in the Actinophrys (or more properly Actinosphcerium) Eichornii (Fig. 4), the central part of the protoplasm is distinguished from the rest by con- taining a number of endoplasts. It thus leads to the Radiola- ria (Polycistina of Ehrenberg), the simplest forms of which Fig. 4.- Actinosphcerium Eichhornii (after Hertwig and Lesser, " Ueber Rhizopo- den." Schulze's Archiv, 1876). I.— The entire animal : c, c, contractile vacuoles. ♦• ff „«, 1 i .nh II.— Part of the periphery much magnified; a, a, a, pseudopodia with stiff axial tuD- stance : ?}. nuclei or endoplasts. . , ^,.„ IIL— A very young ActinosphCErium, with only two nuclei and two pseudopodia, much magnified. consist essentially of a myxopod provided with filamentous, radiating, and often anastomosing, pseudopodia. The centre of the body is occupied by a capsule filled with protoplasm ; $± THE AtfATOM? OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. this sometimes contains only an oil-globule, at others cells, or nuclei, and crystalline bodies. In the layer of protoplasm Fig 5 —Sphcerozoum punctatum.—A, a mass of the natural size ; B. two of the ova! central sacs with trie colored vesicles and spicula which lie in the investing pro- toplasm, magnified. Fig. 6.— Sphcerozoum ovodimare (after Haeckel), magnified. from which the pseudopodia proceed, cellreform bodies of a bright-yellow color, which have been found to contain starch, are usually developed, 1 and this layer also gives rise to a skele- ton of a horny, or, more usually, silicious character, which 1 Even after the death of the Radiolarian, these yellow cells are said by Cien- kowsky to thrive and multiply, and the possibility that they may be parasites must be borne in mind. THE RADIOLARIA. 85 may have the form of detached spicula, or of coarticulated rods, or of networks, or of plates of silicious matter, often of the most exquisite delicacy and beauty. Most of the Hadi- olaria are simple, solitary, and microscopical in size ; but some, such as Collosphcera and Sphcerozoum (Figs. 5 and 6), are formed of aggregates of such simple forms, and float, as visible gelatinous masses, at the surface of the sea, which is the habitation of the great majority of the Hadiolaria. The manner of multiplication and the development of the Hadiolaria have not yet been thoroughly worked out. Cien- kowsky, how T ever, has observed, in Collosph&ra, that the protoplasm contained in the central capsule breaks up into numerous rounded masses. The several capsules which are associated together in the compound Radiolarian then be- come isolated, by the dissolution of the protoplasm which invested and connected them, and finally burst, giving exit to the rounded bodies ; which, while yet within the capsules, were observed to be in active motion. The germs (for such they appear to be) thus set free are 0.008 mm. long, ovate, and carrv two flagelliform cilia at their narrow ends ; so that they are " monads." Each has in its interior a crystalline rod and a few minute oil-globules. The further development of these mastigopods has not yet been traced ; but, if, as is probable, they pass into young Hadiolaria (which, according to Haeckel, possess no capsule, but resemble Arti/iosphce- ria), the Hadiolaria, as members of the Endoplastiea, would typify Protomonas among the JSIonera. Neither conjugation nor fission has been observed among the ordinary Hadio- laria, but both these processes take place in Actinosphm- rium y and, considering the resemblance of the young Hadio- laria to Actinosphcerium, it seems probable that conjugation and fission will yet be discovered among them. Aetinosphcerium has been observed to undergo multipli- cation, by division of its central substance into a certain number of spheroids, and every spheroid becomes inclosed in a silicious case. After a period of rest, a young Actinosphce- rium emerges from each of these cysts. The marine Hadiolaria all inhabit the superficial stratum of the sea, and must fabricate their skeletons at the expense of the infinitesimal!? small proportion of silex which is dis- solved in sea-water; but, when they die, these skeletons sink to the bottom, and there accumulate, together with the Fora- minifera, in warm and temperate regions ; and with the cases of the diatomaceous plants, which abound at the sur- 86 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. face, along with the Radiolaria, all over the globe {see p. 80). The late investigations of Archer and others have demon- strated the existence of a considerable number of fresh-water Radiolaria. Extensive masses of tertiary rock, such as that which is found at Oran, and that which occurs at Bissex Hill, in Bar- badoes, are very largely made up of exquisitely preserved skeletons of Radiolaria. But, though there can be little doubt that Radiolaria abounded in the Cretaceous sea, none are found in the chalk, their silicious skeletons having prob- ably been dissolved and redeposited as flint. 2. The Peotoplasta. — The proper Amoebae have broad and ovate pseudopodia, and resemble Rrotamceba (p. 75) very closely; but they present an advance upon its structure, by exhibiting a distinct endoplast (nucleus) and a contractile vacuole. In Arcella, there are many such nuclei. They thus stand in somewhat the same relation to Rrotarnceba as Acti- nophrys does to Protogenes. Moreover, there are Amcebce in which the power of throw- ing out pseudopodia is confined to one region of the body ; and others, as Arcella, in which a shell is formed over the rest of the body. In other Amoeba?, as A. radiosa, the pseu- dopodia are few, narrow, and but little mobile. But the Amcebce present no such diversity of skeletal development as the Foraminifera do. They multiply by division, and in some cases — e. g., A. spthcerococeus of Haeckel — become en- cysted before they divide. Amcebce (the " proteus animalcules " of the older writers) are not uncommon, and sometimes are very abundant, in fresh waters ; they also occur in damp earth and in the sea, but there is much doubt whether many of them are to be regarded as independent organisms, or whether they are not rather stages in the development of other animals or even of plants, such ^Myxomyoetes. Leaving out the contractile vacuole, the resemblance of an Amoeba in its structure, man- ner of moving, and even of feeding, to a colorless corpuscle of the blood of one of the higher animals is particularly note- worthy. 1 3. The Geegaeixid^: are very closely allied to the Amce- bce, but, in the cycle of forms through which they pass, they curiously resemble Myxastrum. In form they are spheroidal 1 Contractile vacuoles have been observed in the colorless blood-corpus- cles of Amphibia under certain conditions. THE GREGARIXID.E. 87 or elongated oval bodies, sometimes divided by constrictions into segments. Occasionally, one end of the body is pro- duced into a sort of rostrum, which may be armed with re- curved horny spines. In the ordinary Grregarinm, the body presents a denser cortical layer (ectosarc) and a more fluid inner substance (endosarc), in which last the endoplast (nucleus) is imbed- ded. The presence of contractility is manifested merely by slow changes of form, and nutrition appears to be effected by the imbibition of the fluid nutriment, prepared by the organs of the animals in which the Gregarince are parasitic. There is no contractile vacuole. The Gregarince have a peculiar mode of multiplication, sometimes preceded by a process which resembles conju- gation. A single Gregarina (or two which have become applied together) surrounds itself with a structureless cyst. Fig. l.—A. Gregarina of the earthworm (after LieberkuhrO: B. encvsted ; C, Z>, contents divided into pseud o-navicellae ; E, F, free pseudo-navicellae, G. H, free amcebiform contents of the latter. The nucleus disappears, and the protoplasm breaks up (in a manner very similar to that in which the protoplasm of a 88 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. sporangium of Mucor divides into spores) into small bodies, each of which acquires a spindle-shaped case, and is known as a pseudo-navicella. On the bursting of the cyst these bodies are set free, and, when placed in favorable circum- stances, the contained protoplasm escapes as a small active body like a Protamoeba. M. E. van Beneden has recently dis- covered a very large Gregarina ( G. giganted), which inhab- its the intestine of the lobster, and his careful investigation of its structure and development has yielded very interesting results. Gregarina gigantea attains a length of two-thirds of an inch. It is long and slender, and tapers at one extremity, while the other is obtuse, rounded, and separated by a slight constriction from the rest of the body, which is cylindroidal. The outer investment of the body is a thin structureless cu- ticle ; beneath this lies a thick cortical layer (ectosarc), dis- tinguished by its clearness and firmness from the semifluid central substance (endosarc), which contains many strongly- refracting granules. In the centre of the body, the ellipsoid " nucleus," with its " nucleolus," fills up the whole cavity of the cortical layer, and thus divides the medullary substance into two portions. The body of this Gregarina may present longitudinal striations, arising from elevations of the inner surface of the cortical layer, which fit into depressions of the medullary substance ; but these are inconstant. On the other hand, there are transverse striations which are constant, and which arise from a layer of what are apparently muscular fibrilla?, developed in a peripheral part of the cortical layer, immediately below the cuticle. The fibrillas themselves are formed of elongated corpuscles joined end to end. A trans- verse partition separates the cephalic enlargement from the body, and the layer of muscular fibres only extends into the posterior part of the enlargement. The embryos of Gregarina gigantea, when they leave their pseudo-navicella?, are minute masses of protoplasm simi- lar to Protamoebce, and like them devoid of nucleus and con- tractile vacuole. They soon cease to show any change of form, and acquire a globular shape, the peripheral region of the body at the same time becoming clear. Next, two long processes bud out from this body; one is actively mobile, the other still. The former, detaching itself, assumes the appear- ance and exhibits the motions of a minute thread-worm, whence M. van Beneden terms it a pseudo-jilaria. The en- largement at one end becomes apparent, the pseudo-filaria THE INFUSORIA. 89 passes into a quiescent state, and the " nucleolus " makes its appearance in its interior. Around this a clear layer is differ- entiated, giving rise to the " nucleus," and the pseudo-filaria passes into the condition of the adult Gregarina gigantea. 4. The Catallacta of Haeckel, represented by the genus Magosphcvra, are, in one stage, myxopcds with long pseudo- podia, which, broad and lobe-like at the base, break up into fine filaments at their ends, and may therefore be said to be intermediate between those of Protogenes and those of Prot- amoeba. The myxopod is provided with a distinct endoplast and a well-marked contractile space. When fully fed, it se- cretes a cyst and divides into a number of masses, each of which is converted into a conical body, with its base turned outward and its apex inward. These conical bodies are im- bedded in gelatinous matter, and thus cohere into a ball, from the centre of which they radiate. Each develops cilia around its base, and contains an endoplast and a contractile vacuole. After the complex globe thus formed has burst its envelope, it swims about for a while, like a Vblvox. The several cilia- ted animalcules feed by taking in solid particles through the disk. They then separate, and, finally, retracting their cilia, become myxopods such as those with which the series started. Magosphmra is thus very nearly an endoplastic repetition of the moneran Protomonas — the mastigopod being provided with many small cilia, instead of with a couple of large fla- gella. On the other hand, the Catallacta are closely allied to the next group, and, I am disposed to think, might well be included in it. 5. The Infusoria. — Excluding from the miscellaneous as- semblage of heterogeneous forms, which have passed under this name, the Desmidice, Diatomacece, Volvocinece, and Vibrionidce, which are true plants, on the one hand ; and the comparatively highly-organized Potifera, on the other ; there remain three assemblages of minute organisms, which may be conveniently comprehended under the general title of Infu- soria. These are — (a) the so-called '" Monads," or Infusoria flagellata ; (b) the Acinetce, or Infusoria tentaculifera ; and (c) the Infusoria ciliata. (a.) The Flagellata. — These are characterized by pos- sessing only one or two long, whip-like cilia, sometimes (when more than one are present) situated at the same end of the body, sometimes far apart. The body very generally exhib- its an endoplast and a contractile vacuole. There is no per- manently open oral aperture, but there is an oral region, into 90 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED AXIMALS. which the food is forced, and, passing into the endosarc, re- mains for some time surrounded by a globule of contempo- raneously ingested water — a so-called " food-vacuole." Prof. H. James Clark, who has recently carefully studied the Fia- gellata, points out that, in Bicosceca and Codonceea, a fixed monadiform body is inclosed within a structureless and trans- parent calyx. In Codosiga a similar transparent substance rises up round the base of the flagellum, like a collar. In Saljnngoeca the collar around the base of the flagellum is combined with a calycine investment for the whole animai. In Anthophysa, there are two motor organs — the one a stout and comparatively stiff flagellum, w T hich moves by occasional jerks, and the other a very delicate cilium, which is in con- stant vibratory motion. The discrepancy between the -two kinds of locomotive organs attains its maximum in Aniso?iema, which presents interesting points of resemblance to Noctiluca. Multiplication by longitudinal fission was observed in Codosiga and Anthophysa, and probably occurs in the other genera. In Codosiga the flagellum is retracted before fission takes place, but the body does not become encysted ; in An- thophysa the body assumes a spheroidal form, and is sur- rounded by a structureless cyst, before division occurs. Conjugation has not been directly observed among most of the Infusoria JJagellata, nor do any of them exhibit a structure analogous to the endoplastule of the Ciliata. Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale have recently worked out the life-history of several flagellate " Monads," which occur in putrefying infusions of fish. They show that these lla- gellata not only present various modes of agamic multiplica- tion by fission, preceded or not by encystment, but that they conjugate, and that the compound body which results (the equivalent of the zygospore in plants) becomes encysted. Sooner or later, the contents of the cyst become divided either into comparatively large or excessively minute bod- ies, which enlarge and gradually take on the form of the parent. The careful investigations of these authors lead them to conclude that, while the adult forms are destroyed at from 61°-80° C, the excessively minute sporules which have been mentioned, and which may have a diameter of less than 2 1 of an inch, may be heated to 148° C. without the destruction of their vitality. In Euglena viridis (which, however, may be a plant), THE FLAGELLATA. 91 Stein ' has observed a division of the " nucleus " to take place, whereby it becomes converted into separate masses, some of which acquire an ovate or fusiform shape, surrounding them- selves with a dense coat, while others become thin-walled sacs, full of minute granules, each of which is provided with a single cilium. The ultimate fate of these bodies has not been traced. A careful study of the singular genus Noctiluca led me, in 1855, to assign it a place among the Infusoria, and recent investigations have conclusively proved that it is one of the Flagellata. The spheroidal body of Nbctiluca miliaris (Fig. 8) is about one-eightieth of an inch in diameter, and, like a peach, presents a meridional groove, at one end of which the mouth is situated. A long and slender, transversely striated ten- tacle overhang's the mouth, on one side of which a hard- toothed ridge projects. Close to one end of this is a vibratile cilium. A funnel-shaped depression leads into a central mass of protoplasm, connected by fine radiating bands with a layer of the same substance which lines the cuticular enve- lope of the body. There is no contractile vacuole, but an oval endoplast lies in the central protoplasm. Bodies which are ingested are lodged in vacuoles of the latter until they are digested. According to the observations of Cienkowskv, 2 if a Noc- tiluca be injured, the body bursts and collapses, but the pro- toplasmic and other contents, together with the tentacle, form an irregular mass, the periphery of which eventually becomes vacuolated, enlarges, and secretes a new investment. But even a small portion of the protoplasm of a mutilated Nbcti- luca is able to become a perfect animal. Under some condi- tions, the tentacle of a Nbctiluca may be retracted into the body, and, at all times of the year, spheroidal Noctiluca}, devoid of flagellum, tooth, or meridional groove, but other- wise normal, are to be found. These last are probably to be regarded as encysted forms. Multiplication may take place in at least two ways. Fission may occur in the spheroidal forms, as well as in those possessed of a tentacle ; it is in- augurated by the enlargement, constriction, and division, of the endoplast. This process takes place more especially in the latter part of the year. i lt Oiganisnras der Infusionstliiere," ii., 5fi. 2 "Ueber Noctiluca miliaris." (Sckulze's " Archiv fur mikroskop. Anato- mie," 1872.) 92 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. Another mode of a sexual multiplication, which has a sin- gular resemblance to the process of partial yelk division, Fig. S.—Noctiluca miliaris.—e, gastric vacuole ; g, radiating filaments ; /, anal aperture (?). occurs only in the spheroidal Koctilucm. The endoplast dis- appears, and the protoplasm, accumulating on the inner side of one region of the cuticle, divides first into two, then four, eight, sixteen, thirty -two, or more masses ; the division of the protoplasm being accompanied by the elevation of the cuticle into protuberances, which, at first, corresj^ond in number and dimensions with these division masses. When the division masses have become very numerous, each protrudes upon the surface, and is converted into a free monadiform germ, pro- vided with an endoplast, a beak, and a long tentacle, which is hardly to be distinguished from a flagelliform cilium. The process of conjugation has been directly observed. Two Noctiluca^ applying themselves by their oral surfaces, adhere closely together, and a bridge of protoplasm connect- ing the endoplasts of the two becomes apparent. The ten- tacula are thrown off, the two bodies gradually coalesce, and the endoplasts fuse into one. The whole process occupies five or six hours. Spheroidal or encysted JYoctihtcce may conjugate in a similar manner. In this case, the regions nearest the endoplasts are those which become applied to- gether. Whether this process is of a sexual nature, or not, is not clearly made out. Cicnkovvsky admits that it may THE FLAGELLATA. 93 hasten the process of multiplication by monadiform germs described above. Nbctiluca is extremely abundant in the superficial waters of the ocean, and is one of the most usual causes of the phos- phorescence of the sea. The light is given out by the pe- ripheral layer of protoplasm which lines the cuticle. The Peridinew (see Fig. 1, f) form another aberrant group of the Flagellata, which lead to the Ciliata. The body is inclosed in a hard case (sometimes produced into rays), which, at one part, presents a groove-like interruption, laying bare the contained protoplasm, in which lies an endo- plast, and in some cases a contractile vacuole. One or more flagelliform cilia, and usually a wreath of short cilia, are pro- truded from the protoplasm, and serve as locomotive organs. The mouth is a depression, whence, in some cases, an oeso- phageal canal is continued and terminates abruptly in the semi-fluid central substance of the body, the food-particles being lodged in vacuoles formed at its extremity, as in the Ciliata. No other mode of multiplication than that by fission has vet been observed in the Peridineoe : but this fission is sometimes preceded by the inclosure of the animal in an elongated, crescent-shaped cyst. (b.) The Tentaculifera. — The Acinetce (Fig. 9, D, F, F, G-) have no oral aperture of the ordinary kind, but filiform processes or tentacula, which are usually slender, simple, and more or less rigid, radiate from the surface cf the body gen- erally, or from one or more regions of that surface. At first sight, these tentacula resemble the radiating pseudopodia of Actinophrys, but, on closer inspection, they are seen to have a different character. Each, in fact, is a delicate tube, pre- senting a structureless external wall, with a semi-fluid granu- lar axis, and usually ends in a slight enlargement or knob. It may be slowly pushed out or retracted, or diversely bent. But, instead of playing the part of mere prehensile organs, these tentacles act, in addition, as suckers; the Acineta ap- plying one or more of these organs to the body of its prey ' — * I Stein ("Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere," L, 70) thus describes the method by which an Acineta seizes its prev : " If an Infusorium swims within reach ot the Acineta, the nearest tentacles are swiftly thrown toward it, and, at the same time, often become much elongated, bent, or irregularly twisted about, lhe knob-like ends of these tentacles, which come into immediate contact with the surface ot the entangled prey, spread out into disks, and adhere fixedly to it. When many of the tentacles haye thus attached themselyes. the im- prisoned animal is no longer able to escape, its moyements become slower, and at length cease. Those tentacles which haye fixed themselyes most firmlv shorten and thicken, and draw the prev nearer to the body. . . . Suddenly, as 94 THE AXATOMY OF IXYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. usually some other species of Infusorium — when the substance of the latter travels along the interior of the sucker into the Fig. 9.— A, Vorticella, active ; J5, C, encysted ; D, U, F, G, Acinetce (after Stein). body of the Acineta. Solid food is not ing-ested throug'h these tentacles, so that the Acinetce cannot be fed with indio*o or carmine. In the interior of the body there is an endoplast 1 with one or more contractile vacuoles, and it may be either fixed by a stalk or free. The Acinetce multiply by several methods. One of these is simple longitudinal fission, which appears to be rare among them. Another method consists in the development of ciliated embryos in the interior of the body. These embryos result from a separation of a portion of the endoplast, and its con- soon as the suckinsr disk has bored through the cuticula of the prey, a very rapid stream, indicated by the fatty particles which it carries, sets along the axis of the tentacle, and, at its base, pours into the neighboring part of the body of the Acineta. . . . The cause of the movement is unknown. It is not accompanied bv any discernible movement of the walls of the tentacle." 1 No endoplastule, such as exists in other Infusoria, has been observed as yet in the Acinetce. Under some circumstances, the Acinetm draw in their radiating processes, and surround themselves with a structureless cyst; but this process does not appear to have any relation to either mode of multiplica- tion. In Acineta mystacina and Poiloplryajim. a peculiar mode of multiplication bv division occurs. At the free end of the body a portion becomes constricted off, together with part of the endoplast, from the remaining stalked part. The tentacula are drawn in, and the segment becoming elongated, develops cilia over its whole surface and swims awav. THE INFUSORIA. 95 version into a globular or oval germ, which, in some species, is wholly covered with vibratile cilia, while, in others, the cilia are confined to a zone around the middle of the embryo. The germ makes its escape by bursting through the body-wall of its parent. After a short existence (sometimes limited to a few minutes) in the condition of a free-swimming animal- cule, provided with an endoplast and a contractile vacuole, but devoid of a mouth, the characteristic knobbed radiating processes make their aj3pearance, the cilia vanish, and the ani- mal passes into the Acineta state. The Acinetce have frequently been observed to conju- gate, the separate individuals becoming completely fused into one and their endoplasts coalescing into the 'single endoplast of the resultant Acineta / but it is not certainly made out whether this process has, or has not, anything to do with the process of the development of ciliated embryos just described. (c.) The Ciliata. — The characteristic feature of the Ciliata is, that the outer surface of the body is provided with numer- ous vibratile cilia, which are the organs of prehension and loco- motion. According to the distribution of the cilia, Stein has divided them into the Holotricha, in which the cilia are scat- tered over the whole body, and are of one kind ; the Hetero- tricha, in which the widely-diffused cilia are of different kinds, some larger and some smaller ; the Hypotricha, in which the cilia are confined to the under or oral side of the bodv: and the Peritricha, in which they form a zone round the body. The great majority of these animals are asymmetrical. In the simplest and smallest Ciliata, the body resembles that of one of the Flagellata in being differentiated merely into an ectosarc and endosarc, with an endoplast and a con- tractile vacuole. In most, if not all cases, however, there is not only an oral region, through which the ingestion of food takes place, but an oesophageal depression leads from this into the endosarc ; and it may be doubted whether, even in the simplest Ciliata, there is not an anal area through which the undigested parts of the food are thrown out. The genus Colpoda, which is very common in infusions of hay, is a good example of this low form of ciliated Infuso- rium. It has somewhat the form of a bean flattened on one side, and moves actively about by means of numerous cilia, the longest of which are situated at the interior end of the body. At the posterior end is the contractile vacuole, while a large endoplast lies in the middle, as Stein originally dis- covered. Colpodaz frequently become quiescent, retract their 96 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. cilia, and surround themselves with a structureless cyst. Each encysted Colpoda then divides into two, four, or more por- tions, which assume the adult form and escape from the cysts to resume an active existence. Allman has described the encystment of a Vorticellidan, followed by division of the nucleus into many germs, with- out any antecedent process of conjugation ; and Everts has observed that the progeny of an encysted Vorticella take on the form of Trichodina grandinella. The Trichodina^ mul- tiply by transverse divisions, and then grow into Vorti- cellce. 1 Encystment, whether followed or not by division, is very common among all the Giliata, and a species of Amphilep- tus has been seen to swallow — or rather envelop — a stalked bell-animalcule (Vorticella), and then become encysted upon the stalk of its prey, just as Vampyrella becomes perched upon the stalk of the devoured Gomphonema. In the higher Ciliata, the protoplasm of the body becomes directly differentiated into various structures, in the same way as has already been seen to be the case in Gregarina gigantea, but to a much greater degree. Thus, in the Peritricha, of which the bell-animalcules, or Vorticellm (Fig. 9, A, P, G), are the commonest examples, the oral region presents a depression, the vestibule (Fig. 9, a) from which a permanent oesophageal canal leads into the soft and semi-fluid endosarc, where it terminates abruptly ; and immediately beneath the mouth, in the vestibule, there is an anal region which gives exit to the refuse of digestion, but presents an opening only when fecal matters are passing out. Except where the ciliated circlet, or rather spiral, is situated, the outer wall of the body gives rise to a relatively dense cuticula, and not unfrequently secretes a transparent cup or case, foreshadowing the theca of hydrozoal polyps. Moreover, in the permanently fixed Vorticellm, the stalk of attachment may present a central muscular fibre (Fig. 9,f), by the sudden contraction of which the body is retracted, the stalk being at the same time thrown into a spiral. In the holotrichous Paramoecium (Fig. 10) beneath the thin su- perficial transparent cuticle from which the cilia proceed, there is a very distinct cortical layer, fibrillated in a direc- tion perpendicular to the surface, and, in some species of this or other genera, as St l rombidium and Polyhricos (Butschli),- beset with minute rod-like bodies similarly disposed, which, Allman, " Presidential Address to the Linncean Society," 1875. THE INFUSORIA. 97 under some circumstances, shoot out into long filaments, and have been termed trichocysts. In P. bursaria, minute Fig. 10. — Paramecium bursaria (after Stein).— A, the animal viewed from the dorsal side : a, coi-tical layer of the body ; 6, endoplast ; c, contractile space ; d d', mat- ters taken in as food ; e, chlorophyl granules. B, the animal viewed from' the ventral side: «, depression leading to b, mouth ; c, gullet; d, endoplast ; d\ endoplastule ; a, central protoplasm. In both these figures the arrows indicate the direction of the circulation. C, Paramecium dividing trausversly : a a', contractile spaces ; b b, endoplast divid- ing ; c c\ endoplastules.^ green granules of chlorophyl are dispersed through this layer, and Cohn demonstrated, in 1851, that these yield the same reactions as the chlorophyl grains of the Algae. In Balanti- dium, JSTyct other •us, Spirostomum, and many others, the cor- tical layer is divided by linear markings into bands, which there is reason to believe are rudimentary muscular fibres. In many Cillata, the endosarc appears to be almost fluid. The food, which is driven into the mouth and down the oesoph- agus by the constant action of the cilia, accumulates at the bottom of the oesophagus ; and then, with the water which surrounds it, is passed, at intervals, with a sort of jerk, into the endosarc, where it lies close to the end of the oesophagus, as a food-vacuole, for a short time. But it soon begins to move, and, along with other such vacuoles formed before and after it, circulates in a definite course up one side of the body and down the other, between the cortical layer and the endo- plast. This movement is particularly free and unrestricted in Balantidium ; in JParamcecium, the tract through which the food-vacuoles move is more definitely limited, 1 while in Nye- 1 In Paramecium bursaria Cohn observed that the circulation was completed in H to 2 minutes, which gives a rate of rotation of Woo to x*hoo of an inch in a second. 98 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. totherus it appears to be confined to a part of the body be- tween the end of the gullet and the anal region, which in this Infusorium is seated at one end of the body. In fact, the finely granular endosarc of Nyctotherus so limits the passage of the food-vacuoles that the tract along which they pass might properly be described as a rudimentary intestinal canal. The oral cavity is usually ciliated : sometimes, as in Chilo- don, it has a chitinous armature, which becomes somewhat complicated in Emilia (Dysteria *) and the Didinium de- scribed by Balbiani. Torquatella (Lankester) has a plicated membrane around the mouth in the place of cilia. The contractile vacuoles attain their greatest complexity in the JParamoecia, in which there are two — one toward each end of the body. They are lodged in the cortical layer, and, in diastole, a portion of their outer periphery is bounded only by the cuticle, through which it is very probable that they communicate with the exterior. When the svstole takes place, a number of fine canals, which radiate from each vac- uole, are seen to become distended with clear, watery fluid. These canals are constant in their position, and some of them may be traced nearly as far as the mouth ; so that the canals and vacuoles form a permanent water-vascular system. The endoplast is finely granular, like the substance of the endosarc. It is frequently said to be enveloped in a distinct membrane, but I am disposed to think that this is always a product of reagents. Attached to one part of it there is very generally (but not in the Vorticellw) a small oval or rounded body, the so-called "nucleolus" or endoplastule. The endo- plast is commonly said to be imbededd in the cortical layer, but this is certainly not the case in Colpoda, Parametrium, JBalantidiiwi, or JSTyctotherus. The outermost, or cuticular, layer of a large portion of the body becomes hardened and forms a sort of shell, in many of the free Infusoria, In the free marine Dictyocystida and Codonellida of Haeckel, the body has a bell-shaped enve- lope, which in the Dictyocystida (see Fig. 1) is strengthened by a siliceous skeleton like that of a Radiolarian. In both genera the circular lip which surrounds the oral end is pro- vided with numerous long flagelliform cilia. 2 Most of the Ciliata, while in full activity, multiply by di- J Huxley, "On Dysteria." ( Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 1857.) 2 Haeckel, u Zur Morphologic der Infusorien," 1873. THE INFUSORIA. 99 vision ; this is generally effected by the formation of a more or less transverse constriction, whereby the body becomes divided into two parts, which separate, each developing those structures which are needed for its completion. The endo- plast, however, always elongates and divides, one portion going along with each product of fission. Neither budding nor longitudinal fission occurs among the free Infusora, the appearances which have been regarded as evidence of these processes being due to the opposite operation of conjugation. M. Balbiani, 1 its discoverer, thus describes the process of conju- gation in Paramecium bursaria : " The Paramoeoia assemble in great numbers either tow- ard the bottom or on the sides of the vessel in which they are contained. They then conjugate in pairs, their anterior ends being closely united ; and they remain in this state for five or six days or more. During this period the nucleus and nucleolus become transformed into sexual organs. " The nucleolus is changed into an oval capsule, marked superficially by longitudinal striae. Sooner or later, it usually becomes divided into two or four portions, which grow inde- pendently, and form many separate capsules. About the time of separation, each of these is found to be a capsule containing a bundle of curved rods (baguettes), enlarged in the middle, and thinner at the ends. " The nucleus also becomes enlarged, and gives rise — in a manner not clearly explained — to small spherical bodies anal- ogous to ovules. "It is usually about the fifth or sixth day after conjuga- tion that the first germs appear, as little rounded bodies formed of a membrane which is rendered visible by acetic acid, and of grayish pale homogeneous or almost imperceptibly granu- lar contents, in which, as yet, neither nucleus nor contractile vacuole is distinguishable. It is only later that these organs appear. The observations of Stein and of F. Cohn have shown how these embryos leave the body of the mother un- der the form of Aci?ieta3, provided with knobbed tentacles and true suckers, by uieans of which they remain for some time adherent to her, and nourish themselves from her substance. But their investigations have not disclosed the ultimate fate of the young. " I have been able to follow them for a long period after » Balbiani, "Note relative a TExistence d'une Generation Sexuelle chez les Inlusoires." (Journal de la Physiologie, tome i., 1858.) 100 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. their detachment from the maternal organism ; and I have been able to assure myself that, after having lost their ten- tacles, becoming clothed with vibratile cilia, and acquiring a mouth, which makes its appearance as a longitudinal groove, they return definitely to the parental form, developing in their interior the green granules wmich are characteristic of this Paramoeeium, without undergoing any more extensive metamorphosis." In Figs. 19-22 of Plate IV., which accompanies his paper, Balbiani figures all the stages by which the acinetiform em- bryo becomes a Paramozeium. So far as the fact of conjugation, the changes in the " nu- cleolus," and the development of filaments in it, with the subsequent detachment, by division, of masses from the " nu- cleus," are concerned, these statements have not been modi- fied by M. Balbiani, while they are fully confirmed by the ob- servations made by himself, Claparede and Lachmann, Stein, Kolliker, and others, in Paramoecium bursaria, P. aurelia, and other ciliated Infusoria. In the closely allied Paramoecium aurelia, the occurrence of the various stages of conjugation, conversion of the " nu- cleolus " into bundles of spermatozoa, and subsequent division of the " nucleus," is also established by the coincident testi- mony of Balbiani and Stein. Balbiani affirms that, in this spe- cies, the clear globular bodies which result from the division of the " nucleus " pass out of the body without undergoing any further modification, and he considers them to be ovules. Stein also admits that he has never seen acinetiform embryos in this species. But, as it would seem, on the strength of these negative observations in Paramoecium aurelia, Balbiani, in his later publications, asserts that the " acinetiform embryos " observed not only in Paramoecium, but in Stylonychia, Stent or, and many other ciliated Infusoria, are not embryos at all, but parasitic Acinetm / and he makes this assertion without ex- plicitly withdrawing the statement given above of his own ob- servation of the passage of the acinetiform embryo of Para- moecium bursaria into the parental form. Engelmann and Stein, on the other hand, hold by Balbiani's original doctrine, and give strong reasons for so doing. Among the most for- cible analogical arguments are those afforded by the process of sexual reproduction observed by Stein in the peritrichous In- fusoria. In the Peritricha ( Yorticellida >_, Ophrydidoe, Trichodidai) THE INFUSORIA. 101 conjugation takes place by the complete and permanent fusion of two individuals, which are sometimes of equal dimensions ; though, in other cases, one is much smaller than the other, and, while it is in course of absorption, looks like a bud, and was formerly taken for such (Fig. 9, A, g, h). The small individuals usually take their origin from a group of small stalked Vo)'ticellce, which are produced by the repeat- ed longitudinal division of a Vorticella of the ordinary size. The result of the conjugative act is that the " nuclei" of the two individuals, either before or after their coalescence, break up into a number of segments. The segments may remain separate, or coalesce into a single mass, called by Stein placenta. In the former case, some of the segments become germ-masses, while the others reunite to form a new "nucleus ;" in the latter, the placenta throws out a number of germ-masses, and then assumes the form of an ordinary " nucleus." The germ-masses give off portions of their sub- stance, including part of their " nucleus," and these become converted into ciliated embryos, which escape by a special opening. Knobbed tentacles, like those of the Acinetce, have not been observed in the embryos of the Peritricha, nor has their development been traced out. If the bodies regarded as acinetiform embryos of the Ciliata are really such, they may be taken to represent the myxopod stage of the Catallacta, and the relations of the Acinitm to the Ciliata would appear to be that they are modifications of a common type, differing from the Catal- lacta in having tentacula instead of ordinary pseudopodia. In the Acinetce. the tentaculate stage is the more permanent, the ciliated stage transitory ; while, in the Ciliata, the cili- ated stage is the more permanent, and the tentaculate stage transitory. CHAPTER III. THE PORIFERA AND THE CCELENTERATA. 1. The Porifera or Spongida. — It has been seen that, in the Protozoa, the germ undergoes no process of division analogous to the " yelk division " of the higher animals, and to the corresponding process by which the embryo cell of every plant but the very lowest becomes converted into a cellular embryo. Consequently, there is no blastoderm ; the body of the adult Protozoon is not resolvable into morpho- logical units, or cells, more or less modified ; and the aliment- ary cavity, when it exists, has no special lining. Moreover, the occurrence of sexual reproduction in most of the Proto- zoa is doubtful, and there is, at present, no evidence of the existence of male elements, in the form of filamentous sper- matozoa, in any group but the Infusoria ; and even here the real nature of these bodies is still a matter of doubt. In all the Metazoa, the germ has the form of a nucleated cell. The first step in the process of development is the production of a blastoderm by the subdivision of that cell, and the cells of the blastoderm give rise to the histological elements of the adult body. With the exception of certain parasites, and the extremely modified males of a few species, all these animals possess a permanent alimentary cavity, lined by a special layer of cells. Sexual reproduction always occurs ; and, very generally, though by no means invariably, the male element has the form of filiform spermatozoa. The lowest term in the series of the Metazoa is un- doubtedly represented by the Porifera or Sponges, which, after oscillating between the vegetable and the animal king- doms, have, in recent times, been recognized as animals by all who have sufficiently studied their structure and the manner in which their functions are performed. But the place in the Animal Kingdom which is to be as- signed to the sponges has been, and still is, a matter of de- THE PORIFERA. 103 bate. It is certain that an ordinary sponge is made up of an aggregation of corpuscles, some of which have all the charac- ters of Amoebae, while others are no less similar to Monads ; and therefore, taking adult structure only into account, the comparison of a sponge to a sort of compound Protozoon is perfectly admissible, and, in the absence of other evidence, would justify the location of the sponges among the Protozoa. But, within the last few years, the development of the sponges has been carefully investigated ; and, as in so many other cases, a knowledge of that process necessitates a recon- sideration of the views suggested by adult structure. The impregnated ovum undergoes regular division ; a blas- toderm is formed, consisting of two layers of cells — an epiblast and a hypoblast — and the young animal has the form of a deep cup, the wall of which is composed of two layers, an ec- toderm and an endoderm, which proceed respectively from the epiblast and hypoblast. The embryo sponge is, in fact, simi- lar to the corresponding stage of a hydrozcon, and is totally unlike any known condition of a protozoan. Beyond this early stage, however, the sponge-embryo takes a line of its own, and its subsequent condition differs altogether from anvthino; known amono- the Ccelentercita : all of which, on the other hand, present close and intimate resem- blances in their future development, as in their adult structure. It is not long since the only sponge of the structure and development of which we were accurately informed was the SpongiUafliiviatilis, or fresh-water sponge, the subject of the elaborate researches of Lieberkuhn and Carter. But, recently, a flood of light has been thrown upon the morphology and phys- iology of the marine sponges, particularly of those^ sponges with calcareous skeletons, which are termed Calcispongim, by Lieberkuhn, Oscar Schmidt, and especially Haeckel. It has become clear that Spongilla is a somewhat aberrant form, and that the fundamental type of Poriferal organization is to be sought among the Calcispongim. In the least com- plicated of the calcareous sponges, the body has the form of a cup, and is attached by its closed extremity. The open ex- tremity is the osculum, and leads directly into the spacious ventricidus, or cavity of the cup. The comparatively thin wall of the cup is composed of two layers, readily distinguish- able by their structure — the outer is the ectoderm, the in- ner the endoderm. The ectoderm is a transparent, slightly granular, gelatinous mass in which the nuclei are scattered, but which, in the unaltered state, shows no trace of the primitive 104 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED AXTMALS. Fig. li.—Ascetta primordialis (after Haeekel). I. A mature Astcetta^an of one side of the body of which is removed: 0, the exhal- ent aperture ; p. iuhalent pores in the wall of the body ; i, endoderm ; e, ecto- derm ; q, ova. The triradiate spicula are seen imbedded in the ectoderm. II. A portion of the endoderm, with two pores (p>; i, endodermal cells— those round the margins of the pores have their cilia directed inward ; e, ectodermal syncy- tium; , detached hydjo- phyllia ; a, polypites ; b, tentacles ; c, sacculi of the tentacles ; d, hydrophyllia ; /, pneumatophoie. principal function of which is to develop the gonophores from their pedicles. In these two genera the tentacula are separate from the hydranths, and form the outermost circle of appendages. The hydranths of the Siphonophora (Fig. 25, A) never possess a circlet of tentacula round the mouth, which, when expanded, is trumpet-shaped. The endoderm of the hydranth is ciliated, and villus-like prominences project into its cavity. The aboral surface of the umbrella was of a brownish-gray color, variegated with oval white spots ; the oral surface, light brown with eight bluish-green lines radiating toward the lithocysts ; the brachia, gray with brown dots. The brachia divide into two at their origin, and then subdivide into an infinity of small branches. The general color of the smaller branches is light brown, the small interspersed clavatc tentacles being white. The long tentacles which terminate each brachium are blue and cylindrical at their origin, but become trigonal farther on, where they are shaded with brown and green. Is it identi- cal with the Cephea ocellata of Peron and Lesueur? The individual figured- was a young male. 9 128 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. The interior of these frequently contains vacuolar spaces (Fig. 24, B, C). A valvular "pylorus" separates the gastric from the somatic cavity in the Calycophoridce. Long tenta- cles, frequently provided with unilateral series of branches, are developed, either one from the base of each hydranth, or,' independently of the hydranths, from the ccenosarc. In the Calycophoridw and many Physophoridce, complex Fig. 25.—AthoryMa rosacea.— A, a hydranth with villi (a). B, one of the villi in its elongated state, enlarged. 6', a small retracted villus, still more magnified, with its vacuolar spaces and ciliated surface. organs, containing a sort of battery of thread-cells, terminate each lateral branch of a tentacle (Figs. 24 and 26). Each consists of an elongated saccidits, terminated by two fila- mentous appendages, and capable of being spirally coiled up. In this state it is invested by an involucnan^ which surrounds its base. The somatic cavity is continued through the branch, which constitutes the peduncle of this organ, into the saccu- lus and its terminal filaments. In the latter it is narrow, and their thick walls contain numerous small spherical nemato- cysts. In the sacculus the cavity is wider. One wall is very thick, and multitudes of elongated nematocysts, the lateral series of which are sometimes larger than the rest, are dis- posed parallel with one another, and perpendicular to the surface of the sac. Like the other organs, each of these tentacular appendages commences as a simple diverticulum of the ectoderm and endoderm, and passes through the stages represented in Fig. 26. In Physalia the tentacula may be several feet long. They have no lateral branches, but the large nematocysts are situ- THE SIPHONOPHORA. 129 ated in transverse reniform thickenings of the wall of the ten- tacle, which occur at regular intervals. Fig. 26. — Athorybia rosacea.— The ends of the tentacular branches in various stages of development. A, lateral branch, commencing as a bud from the tentacle. In B, terminal papillae, the rudiments of the filaments, are developed at the extremi- ty of the branch ; and, in C, the sacculus is beginning to be marked off, and thread- cells have appeared in its walls ; in Z>, the division into iavolucrum and sacculus is apparent; in B. the involucrum has invested the sacculus, the extremity of which is straight, while the lateral processes have curled round it. Hydrophyllia are generally present, and, like the tentacu- la, are developed either from the pedicle of a hvdranth, in which case they inclose the hvdranth with its tentacle and a group of gonophores (Calycophoridce), or, independently of the hydranths, from the coenosarc (many Physophoridoe). The hydrophyllia are transparent, and often present very beautifully defined forms, so that they resemble pieces of cut glass. They are composed chiefly of the ectoderm (and meso- derm), but contain a prolongation of the endoderm, with a corresponding diverticulum of the somatic cavity. They are, in fact, developed as caecal processes of the endoderm and ectoderm ; but the latter, with the mesodermal layer, rapidly predominates. The gonophores of the Siphonopliora present every varie- ty, from a simple form, in which the medusoid remains in a state of incomplete development, to free medusoids of the Gymnophthalmatous type. As an example of the former 130 THE ANATOMY OF INYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. condition the gonophores of Athorybia may be cited (Fig. 27) ; of the latter, the gonophores of Physalia, JPorpita, and Velella. In Athorybia, groups of gonophores, together with pyri- form sacs, which resemble incompletely developed hydranths (hydrocysts — Fig. 27, A, a), are borne upon a common stem, and constitute a gonoblastidium (Fig. 27, A). The groups of male and female gonophores (Fig. 27, A, b, c) are borne upon separate branches of the gonoblastidium (androphores — e Fig. 27 '.— Athorybia rosacea.— A, gonoblastidium bearing three hydrocysts, a; gyno- phore, b; and two androphores, c. B, female gonophores on their common stem or gynophore, showing toe included ovum, «, and the radical canals, b. C, D, female gonophores enlarged ; a, terminal vehicle ; b. vitellus; c, radial canals of the imperfect nectocalyx ; d, canals ol the manubrial cavity. E, male gonophore. and gynophores). Each female gonophore contains only a single ovum, which projects into the cavity of the imperfectly THE STPHOXOPHORA. 131 differentiated manubrium, and narrowing its cavity at differ- ent points gives rise to the irregular canals (Fig. 27, D, d). In the male gonophore the nectocalyx is more distinct from the manubrium, and its extremity has a rounded aperture (Fig. 27, JE). In the Calycophoridce, as in the elongated Physophoridm, the development of new hydranths and their appendages, which is constantly occurring, takes place at that end of the hydrosoma which corresponds to the fixed extremity of one of the Hydrophora / and, if we consider this to be the proxi- mal end, new buds are developed on the proximal side of those already formed. Moreover, these buds are formed on one side only of the hydrosoma. Hence the appendages are strictly unilateral, though they may change their position so as eventually to appear bilateral or even whorled. In the Calycopjhoridce, the saccular proximal end of the ccenosarc (Fig. 22, A, d) is inclosed within the anterior nectocalyx, at the posterior end of which is a chamber, the hydrceevum (Fig. 22, A, c). The second, or posterior, nectocalyx is at- tached in such a way that its anterior end is inclosed within the hydrcecium of the anterior nectocalyx, while its contrac- tile chamber lies on the opposite side of the axis to that on which the anterior nectocalyx is placed (Fig. 22, A). Sets of appendages (Fig. 22, A, a ; Fig. 23), each consisting of a hydrophyllium, a hydranth with its tentacle, and gonophores, which last bud out from the pedicle of the hydranth — are developed at regular intervals on the ccenosarc, and the long chain trails behind as the animal swims with a darting mo- tion, caused by the simultaneous rhythmical contraction of its nectocalyces, through the water (Fig. 22). From what has been said, it follows that the distal set of appendages is the oldest, and, as they attain their full de- velopment, each set becomes detached, as a free-swimming, complex Diphyzooid (Fig. 23). In this condition they grow and alter their form and size so much, that they were for- merly regarded as distinct genera of what were termed mono- gastric Diphydce. The gonophores, with which these are provided, in their turn become detached, increase in size, become modified in form, and are set free as a third series of independent zooids (Fig. 23, D). But their manubrium does not develop a mouth and become a functional hydranth ; on the contrary, the generative elements are developed in its wall, and are set free by its dehiscence. In the Physophoridce, the proximal end of the hydrosoma 132 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. is provided with a pneumatophore. This is a dilatation, into which the ectoderm is invaginated, so as to form a receptacle, which becomes filled with air and sometimes has a terminal opening, through which the air can be expelled (Fig. 13, 4). It is sometimes small, relatively to the hydrosoma (Agalma, Physophora) ; sometimes so large (Athorybia, Fig. 24 ; Phy- salia, Porpita, Velella), that the whole hydrosoma becomes the investment of the pyriform or discoidal air-sac ; while the latter is sometimes converted into a sort of hard inner shell, its cavity being subdivided by septa into numerous chambers (Porpita, Velella). Nsctocalyces may be present or absent in the Physopho- ridoe. When present, their number varies, but they are con- fined to the region of the hydrosoma which lies nearest to the pneumatophore. In the great majority of the Hydrozoa, the ovum under- goes cleavage and conversion into a morula, and subsequently into a planula, possessing a central cavity inclosed in a double cellular wall, the inner layer of which constitutes the hypo- blast, and the outer the epiblast. In most Hjdrophora the ciliated, locomotive, planula be- comes elongated and fixed by its aboral pole. At the oppo- site end, the mouth appears and the embryo passes into the gastrula stage. Tentacles next bud out round the mouth, and to this larval condition, common to all the JTydrophora, Allman has given the name of Actinula. Generally, the embryo fixes itself by its aboral extremity at the end of the planula stage ; but, in certain Tubularidce, while the embryo is still free, a circlet of tentacles is devel- oped close to the aboral end ; and this form of larva differs but very slightly from that which is observed in the Disco- phora. In the genus Pelagia, for example, the tentacles are de- veloped from the circumference of the embryo, midway be- tween the oral and aboral poles ; but it neither fixes itself nor elongates into the ordinary actinula-form. On the con- trary, it remains a free-swimming organism, and, by degrees, that moiety of the body which lies on the aboral side of the tentacular circlet widens and is converted into the umbrella, the other moiety becoming the hydranth, or " stomach," of the Medusa. In Zfucernaria, it is probable that the larva fixes itself be- fore or during the development of the umbrella, and passes THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HYDROZOA. 133 directly into the adult condition. But, in most Discophora, the embryo becomes a fixed actinula (the so-called Hydra tuba or Scyphistoma, Fig. 28, 1.), multiplies agamogenetically by budding, and gives rise to permanent colonies of Hydri- form polyps. At certain seasons of the year, some of these enlarge and undergo a farther agamogenetic multiplication by fission (Fig. 28, II.). In fact,, each divides transversely into a number of eight-lobed discoidal medusoids (" JEphyrce " or " Medusce bifidce" ¥\g. 28, II. and III.), and thus passes into what has been termed the btrobila stage. The Ephyrce, becoming detached from one another and from the stalk of the Strobila, are set free, and, undergoing a great increase in size, take on the form of the adult Discophore, and acquire reproductive organs. The base of the Strobila may develop tentacles (Fig. 28, II.) and resume the Scyphistoma condition. Metschnikoff 1 has recently traced out the development of Geryonia( Carmarina), Polyxenia,JEginop>$i$, and other Dis- cophora, which differ from the foregoing in possessing a velum ; and in these, as in the Trachynema ciliatum, observed by Gegenbaur, 3 the process appears to be of essentially the same nature as in Pelagia, The Scyphistoma of Awelia, Cyanoea, and their allies, is probably to be regarded, like the larva of Pelagia, as a Discophore with a rudimentary disk ; in which case the reproduction of the Eyi/iyra-forms of young Disco- phora will not be comparable to the development of medusoid gonophores among the Hydrophora, but will merely be a pro- cess of multiplication, by transverse fission, of a true, though undeveloped, Discophore. In the Siphonophora? the result of yelk division is the formation of a ciliated body consisting of a small-celled ectoderm investing a solid mass of large blastomeres, which eventually pass into the cells of the endoderm. This body does not take the form of an actinula. On the contrary, it appears to be the rule that buds from which a hvdrophyllium, a nectoealyx, a tentacle, or pneumatophore, or even all of them, will be developed, take their origin antecedently to the formation of the first polypite and of the gastric cavity. As Metschnikoff well remarks, the mode of development of the Siphonophora is wholly inconsistent with the doctrine that the various appendages of the hydrosoma in these ani- |"StTidien fiber die Entwickelung der Medusen und Siphonophoren." (Zeitsehrift fur wiss. Zool., xxiv.) 3 " Zu'r Lehre der Generationswechsel," 1854. 3 See especially the late observations of Metschnikoff, loc. cit. 134 THE ANATOMY OF IXYERTEBRATED AXHIALS. I if:! i \\ i?ij/!:;Msi Mi y ! i !:: s : i i ! !;^ iji.:::; ■ s\ * 1 ! ii ! r. : i • : • : • i ■ ::-.:•::: i :■. ? I • * •a I'Uiini \\\\wi\\\ urn I i m in i Ii i ii vi n ww \ I • ■ » i « til * I • • ' '• ' " ■ ; : ' I i: » • ■ El*ll4tS*:! ! • \\ *' I : '• ! \ • I • I , 1 ! • » J J Si.- ; ■ ; ! J J I \l • -il I I g J ; ! si ! ■• \ ! ' i I' I !!i P I Pig. 28— I. and IL— Cyana>a capittata (after Van Beneden 1 ). I. Two Hyrtrce tubce (Scyphistoma stage), exhibiting their ordinary characters, and between them two {a, b) which are undergoing fission (Strobila stage). II. The two Strobiles, a and 6, three days later. In a. tentacles are "developed be- neath the lowest of the Ephyne, from the stalk of the Strobila, which will persist as a Hydra tuba. III. Half the disk of an EpJiyra of Aurelia aurita, seen from the oral face. The small tentacles which lie between the mouth and the band of circular muscular fibres are inside the somatic cavity, whence sixteen short and wide radial canals extend to the periphery, where they are united by transverse branches. Eight of the radial canals enter the corresponding lobes, and finally divide into three branches: one which enters the peduncle of the lithocyst. and two lateral caeca. Radiating bands of muscular fibres accompany these canals. IV. Side view of one of the litbocyste with its peduncle. The arrow indicates the direction in which the cilia of the exterior work. 1 " Eecherch.es but la Faune littorale de Belgique. Polypes." 1866. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HYDROZOA. 135 mals represent individuals. The Hydrozoa are not properly- compound organisms, if this phrase implies a coalescence of separate individualities ; but they are organisms, the organs of which tend more or less completelv to become independent existences or zobids. A medusoid, though it feeds and main- tains itself, is, in a morphological sense, simply the detached independent generative organ of the hvdrosoma on which it was developed ; and what is termed the " alternation of gen- erations," in these and like cases, is the result of the dissocia- tion of those parts of the organism on which the generative function devolves, from the rest. 1 In certain Discophora belonging to the group of Trachy- nemata, a method of multiplication by gemmation has been observed, which is unknown among the other Hydrozoa. It mav be termed entogastric gemmation, the bud growing out from the wall of the gastric cavity, into which it eventually passes on its way outward ; while, in all other cases, gemma- tion takes place by the formation of a diverticulum of the whole wall of the gastro-vascular cavity which projects on to the free surface of the body, and is detached thence (if it be- come detached), at once, into the circumjacent water. The de- tails of this process of entogastric gemmation have been traced by Haeckel 2 in Carmcirlna hastata, one of the Geryonidce. As in other members of that family, a conical process of the mesoderm, covered by the endoderm, projects from the roof of the gastric cavity and hangs freely down into its interior. Upon the surface of this, minute elevations of y^To-th °f an inch in diameter make their appearance. The cells of which these outgrowths are composed next become differentiated into two layers — an external clear and transparent layer, which is in contact with the cone, and invests the sides of the elevation ; and an inner darker mass. The external layer is the ectoderm of the young medusoid, the inner its endoderm. A cavity, which is the commencement of the gastric cavity, ap- pears in the endodermal mass, and opens outward on the free side of the bud. The latter, now ^r^th °^ an mcn 1R diameter, has assumed the form of a plano-convex disk, fixed by its flat side to the cone, and having the oral aperture in the centre of its convex free side. The disk next increasing in height, the 1 I have seen no reason to depart from the opinions on the subject of 1 Animal individuality ' enunciated in my lecture published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for June, 1852. *" Beitraore zur Natur^eschichte der Hvdromeduserj,"' 1865. 136 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. body acquires the form of a flask with a wide neck. The belly of the flask is the commencement of the umbrella of the bud- ding medusoid ; the neck is its gastric division. The belly of the flask, in fact, continues to widen out until it has the form of a flat cup, from the centre of which the relatively small gastric neck projects, and the bud is converted into an unmis- takable medusoid, attached to the cone by the centre of the aboral face of its umbrella. In the mean while, the gelatinous transparent mesoderm has appeared, and, in the umbrella, has acquired a great relative thickness. Into this, eight prolonga- tions of the gastric cavity extend, and give rise to the radial canals, which become united into a circular canal at the cir- cumference of the disk. The velum, tentacula, and lithocysts are developed, and the bud becomes detached as a free swim- ming medusoid. But this medusoid is very different from the Carmarina from which it has budded. For example, it has eight radial canals, while the Carmarina has only six ; it has solid tentacles, while the adult Carmarina has tubular tenta- cles ; it has no gastric cone, and has differently disposed lith- ocysts. Haeckel, in fact, identifies it with Cunina rhodo- dactyla, a form which had hitherto been considered to be not only specifically and generically different from Carmarina^ but to be a member of a distinct family — that of the JEginidai. What makes this process of asexual multiplication more remarkable is, that it takes place in Carmarina} which have already attained sexual maturity, and in males as well as in females. There is reason to believe that a similar process of ento- gastric proliferation occurs in several other species of ^Egi- nidas, — JEgineta prolifera (Gegenbaur), Enry stoma rubigi- nositm (Kolliker), and Cunina Kbllikeri (F. Miiller) ; but, in all these cases, the medusoids which result from the gem- mative process closely resemble the stock from which they are produced. As might be expected, the Hydrozoa are extremely rare in the fossil state, and probably the last animal the discovery of fossil remains of which could be anticipated is a jelly-fish. Nevertheless, some impressions of Medusae, in the Solenhofen slates, are sufficiently well preserved to allow of their deter- mination as members of the group of Rhizostomidw? The 1 Haeekel, " Ueber zwei neue fossile Medusen aus der Familie der Rhi- zostomiden." (" Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie," 1866.) THE ACTIXOZOA. 137 apparent absence of the remains of Hydrophora in the meso- zoic and newer palaeozoic rocks is very remarkable. Some singular organisms, termed Graptolites, which abound in the Silurian rocks, may possibly be Hydrozoa, though they present points of resemblance with the Polyzoa. They are simple or branched stems, sometimes slender, sometimes ex- panded or foliaceous ; occasionally the branches are connected at their origin by a membranous expansion. The stems are tubular, and beset on one or both sides with minute cup- shaped prolongations, like the thecae of a Sertularian. A solid thickening of the skeleton may have the appearance of an independent axis. Allman has suggested that the theciform projections of the Graptolite stem may correspond with the mematophores of Sertularians, and that the branches may have been terminated by hydranths. Appendages which ap- pear to be analogous to the gonophores of the Hydrophora have been described in some Graptolites. 1 With a very few exceptions (Hydra, Cordylophorci) the Hydrozoa are marine animals; and a considerable number, like the Calycophoridce and JPhysophoridce, are entirely pe- lagic in their habits. The Actixozoa. — The essential distinctions between the Actinozoa and the Hydrozoa are two. In the first place, the oral aperture of an Actinozoon leads into a sac, which, with- out prejudice to the question of its exact function, may be termed " gastric," and which is not, like the hydranth of the Hydrozoon, free and projecting, but is sunk within the body. From the walls of the latter it is separated by a cavity, the sides of which are divided by partitions, the mesenteries, which radiate from the wall of the gastric sac to that of the bod} 7 , and divide the somatic cavity into a corresponding num- ber of inter mesenteric chambers. As the gastric sac is open at its inner end, however, its cavity is in free communication with that of the central space which communicates with the intermesenteric chambers ; and the central space, together with the chambers, which are often collectivelv termed the " body cavity " or " perivisceral cavity," are, in reality, one with the digestive cavity, and, as in the Hydrozoa, consti- stute an enter ocoele. Thus an ActinozoQn might be com- pared to a Lacernaria, or still better to a Carduella, in which the outer face of the hydranth is united with the inner face 1 Hall, " Graptolites of the Quebec Series of North America," 1865. Nichol- son, " Monograph of the British Graptolitidte," 1872. 138 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEB RATED ANIMALS. of the umbrella ; under these circumstances the canals of the umbrella in the Hydrozoon would answer to the intermesen- teric chambers in the Actinozoon. Secondly, in the Actinozoa, the reproductive elements are developed in the walls of the chambers or canals of the en- teroccele, just as they so commonly are in the walls of the gastro-vascular canals of the Hydrozoa, but the generative organs thus constituted do not project outwardly, nor dis- charge their contents directly outward. On the contran f , the ova and spermatozoa are shed into the enteroccele, and event- ually make their way out by the mouth. In this respect, again, the Actinozoon is comparable to a Lucernaria modi- fied by the union of the hydranth with the ventral face of the umbrella ; under which circumstances the reproductive ele- ments, which in all Hydrozoa are developed, either in the walls of the hydranth or in those of the oral face of the um- brella, would be precluded from making their exit by any other route than through the gastro-vascular canals and the mouth. In the fundamental composition of the body of an ecto- derm and endoderm, with a more or less largely developed mesoderm, and in the abundance of thread-cells, the Actino- zoa agree with the Hydrozoa. In most of the Actinozoa, the simple polyp, into which the embryo is converted, gives rise by budding to many zooids which form a coherent whole, termed by Lacaze-Du- thiers a zoanthodeme. The Coralligexa. — The Actinozoa comprehend two groups — the Goralligena and the Ctenophora — which are widely different in appearance though fundamental^ similar in structure. In the former, the mouth is always surrounded by one or more circlets of tentacles, which may be slender and conical, or short, broad, and fimbriated. The mouth is usually elongated in one direction, and, at the extremities of the long diameter, presents folds which are continued into the gastric cavity. The arrangement of the parts of the body is therefore not so completely radiate as it appears to be. The enteroccele is divided into six, eig-ht, or more wide inter- mesenteric chambers, which communicate with the cavities of the tentacles, and sometimes directly with the exterior, by apertures in the parietes of the body. The mesenteries which separate these wide chambers are thin and membranous. Two dt them, at opposite ends of a transverse diameter of the Ac- THE CORALLIGENA. 139 tinozoo'n, are often different from the rest. Each mesentery ends, at its aboral extremity, in a free edge, often provided Fig. 29.— Perpendicular section of Actinia holsatica (after Frey and Leuckart).— a, mouth ; &, gastric cavity ; c, common cavity, into which the gastric cavity and the intermesenteric chambers open; d, intermesenteric chambers; e, thickened free margin, containing thread-cells of , /, a mesentery; g, reproductive organ ; h, tentacle. with a thickened and folded margin ; and these free edges look toward the centre of an axial cavity, 1 into which the gas- tric sac and all the intermesenteric chambers open. In the Coralligena, the outer wall of the body is not pro- vided with bands of large paddle-like cilia. Most of them are fixed temporarily or permanently, and many give rise by gemmation to turf-like, or arborescent, zoanthodemes. The great majority possess a hard skeleton, composed principally of carbonate of lime, which may be deposited in permanently disconnected spicula in the walls of the body ; or the spicula may run into one another, and form solid networks, or dense plates, of calcareous matter. When the latter is the case, the calcareous deposit may invade the base and lateral walls of the body of the Actinozoon, thus giving rise to a simple cup, or theca. The skeleton thus formed, freed of its soft parts, is a " cup-coral," and receives the name of a corallite. In a zoanthodeme, the various polyps (anthozooids) formed by gemmation may be distinct, or their several enter- occeles may communicate ; in which last case, the common connecting mass of the body, or coenosarc, may be traversed by a regular system of canals. And, when such compound 1 Partially-digested substances are often found in this axial space, and it is not improbable that it may functionally represent the stomach or the com- mencement of the intestine in higher animals. 140 THE AX ATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. Actinozoa develop skeletons, the corallites may be distinct, and connected only by a substance formed by the calcifica- tion of the ccenosarc, which is termed ccenenchyma ; or the thecae may be imperfectly developed, and the septa of adja- cent corallites run into one another. There are cases, again, in which the calcareous deposit in the several polyps of a compound Actinozoon, and in the superficial parts of the cce- nenchyma, remains loose and spicular, while the axial por- tion of the ccenosarc is converted into a dense chitinous or cal- cified mass — the so-called sclerobase. The mesoderm contains abundantly developed muscular fibres. The question whether the Coralligena possess a ner- vous system and organs of sense, hardly admits of a definite answer at present. It is only in the Actinidw that the ex- istence of such organs has been asserted ; and the nervous circlet of Actinia, described by Spix, has been seen by no later investigator, and may be safely assumed to be non-exist- ent. Prof. P. M. Duncan, F. R. S., 1 however, has recently described a nervous apparatus, consisting of fusiform gan- glionic cells, united by nerve-fibres, which resemble the sym- pathetic nerve-fibrils of the Vertebrata, and form a plexus, which appears to extend throughout the pedal disk, and very probably into other parts of the body. In some of the Actinidce (e. g., Actinia mesembryanthemum), brightly-col- ored bead-like bodies are situated in the oral disk outside the tentacles. The structure of these "chromatcphores," or ''bourses calicinales," has been carefully investigated by Schneider and Rotteken, and by Prof. Duncan. They are diverticula of the body wall, the surface of which is com- posed of close-set " bacilli," beneath which lies a layer of strongly-refracting spherules, followed by another layer of no less strongly-refracting cones. Subjacent to these, Prof. Duncan finds ganglion cells and nervous plexuses. It would seem, therefore, that these bodies are rudimentary eyes. The sexes are united or distinct, and the ovum is ordina- rily, if not always, provided with a vitelline membrane. The impregnated ovum gives rise to a ciliated morula, which may either be discharged or undergo further development within the somatic cavity of the parent. The morula becomes a gas- trula, but whether by true invagination or by delamination, as in most of the Hydrozoa, is not quite clear. The gastrula usually fixes itself by its closed end, while tentacles are de- 1 " On the Nervous System of Actinia." (" Proceedings of the Royal Socie- ty," October 9, 1873.) THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CORALLIGEXA. 141 veloped from its oral end. It can hardly be doubted that the intermesenteric chambers are diverticula of the primitive en- terocoele ; but the exact mode of their origin needs further elucidation. Lacaze-Duthiers ' has recently thrown a new light upon the development of the Coralligena, and particularly of the Actiniae {Actinia, Sagartia, I? anodes). These animals are generally hermaphrodite, testes and ovaria being usually found in the same animal, and even in the same mesenteries ; but it may happen that the organs of one or the other sex are, at any given time, exclusively developed. The ova undergo the early stages of their development within the body of the parent. The process of yelk division was not observed, and in the earliest condition described the embryo was an oval planula-like body, composed of an inner colored substance and an outer colorless layer. The outer layer (epiblast = ec- toderm) soon becomes ciliated. An oval depression appears at one end, and becomes the mouth 2 and gastric sac, while, at the opposite extremity, the cilia elongate into a tuft. The ectoderm extends into and lines the gastric sac, w r hile the in- terior of the colored hypoblast becomes excavated by a cav- ity, the enteroccele, which communicates with the gastric sac. In this condition the embryo swims about with its oral pole directed backward. The oral aperture changes its form and becomes elongated in one direction, which may be termed the oral axis. The mesenteries are paired processes of the transparent outer layer (probably of that part which constitutes the mesoderm) which mark off corresponding segments of the enteroccele. The first which make their appearance are directed nearly at right angles to the oral axis near, but not exactly in, the centre of its length. Hence they divide the enteroccele into two primitive chambers, a smaller (xA) at one end of the oral axis, and a larger (A') at the other. This condition may be represented by A-^ A' ; the dots indicating the position of the primitive mesenteries, and the hyphen that of the oral axis. It is interesting to remark that, in this state, the em- 1 " Developpemenl des Coralliaires." (Archives de Zoologie experimentale, 2 Kowalewsky describes the formation of a gastrula by invagination in a spe- cies of Actinia and in Cereanthus, the aperture of invagination becoming the mouth (Hofmann and Schwalbe, " Jahresbericht," Bd.ll., p. 269). In other species of Actinia and in Alcyonium, the planula seems to delaminate. Ordi- nary yelk division occurs in some Anthozoa, while in others (Alcyonium) the process rather resembles that which occurs in most Arthropods. 142 THE AXATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. bryo is a bilaterally symmetrical cylindrical body, with a cen< tral canal, the future gastric sac ; and, communicating there- with, a bilobed enteroccele, which separates the central canal from the body- wall. In fact, in principle, it resembles the early condition of the embryo of a Ctenophore, a Brachiopod, or a Sagitta. Another pair of mesenteric processes now makes its ap- pearance in the larger chamber A', and cuts off two lateral chambers, B, B, which lie between these secondary mesenteries and the primary ones. In this state the enteroccele or somat- ic cavity is four-chambered (A-i--r> A'). Next a third pair of mesenteries appear in the smaller chamber (A), and divide it into three portions, one at the end of the oral axis (A), and two lateral (C, C). In this stage there are therefore six A p-^-Ti A' ) ; but almost immediately the number is increased to eight, by the development of a fourth pair of mesenteries in the chambers B, B, which thus give rise to the chambers D, D, between the primitive mesenteries and them- selves. The embryo remains in the eight-chambered condition A pz-^-pv -r> A' ) for some time, until all the chambers and their dividing mesenteries become equal. Then a fifth and a sixth pair of mesenteries are formed in the chambers C, C, and D, D ; two pairs of new chambers, E and F, are produced, and thus the Actinia acquires twelve chambers (A p p~^F D R ^ /' ^ ve of which result from the subdivision of the smaller primary chamber, and seven from that of the larger primary chamber. The various chambers now acquire equal dimensions, and the tentacles begin to bud out from each. The appearance of the tentacles, however, is not simultaneous. That which pro- ceeds from the chamber A' is earliest to appear, and for some time is largest, and, at first, eight of the tentacles are larger than the other four. The coiled marginal ends of the mesenteries appear at first upon the edges of the two primary mesenteries ; then upon the edge of the fourth pair, and afterward upon those of the other pairs. For the further changes of the young Actinia, I must refer to the work cited. Sufficient has been said to show that the development of the Actiniw follows a law of bilateral symmetry, and to bring out the important fact that, in the THE OCTOCOKALLA. 143 course of its development, the finally hexamerous Antho- zoon passes through a tetramerous and an octomerous stage. Phenomena analogous to the " alternation of generations," which is so common among the ITydrozoa, are unknown among the great majority of the Actinozoa. But Semper ' has recently described a process of agamogenesis in two spe- cies of Fungio?, which he ranks under this head. The Fiingioe bud out from a branched stem, and then become detached and free, as is the habit of the genus. To make the parallel with the production of a medusoid from a hydroid polyp complete, however, the stem should be nourished by a sexless anthozooid of a different character from the forms of Fungice which are produced by gemmation. And this does not appear to be the case. In one division of the CoralUgena — the Octocoralla — eight enteroccele chambers are developed, and as many ten- tacles. Moreover, these tentacles are relatively broad, flat- tened, and serrated at the edges, or even pinnatifid. The Actinozoon developed from the egg may remain simple (JHaimea, Milne-Edwards), but usually gives rise to a zoan- thodeme. * The ccenosarc of the zoanthodeme in the Octocoralla is a substance of fleshy consistence, which is formed chiefly of a peculiar kind of connective tissue, containing many muscular fibres developed in the thickened mesoderm. The axial cavity of each anthozooid is in communication with a system of large canals. In Alcyoiiiiun, a single large canal descends from each anthozooid into the interior of the zoanthodeme, and the eight mesenteries are continued as so many ridges throughout its entire length, 2 so that these tubes have been compared to the thecal canals of the Millepores. In the red coral of commerce ( Corallium ruhrurn, Fig. 30), the large canals run parallel with the axial skeleton. A delicate net- work, which traverses the rest of the substance of the cceno- sarc, appears to be sometimes solid and sometimes to form a system of fine canals opening into the larger ones. The anthozooids possess numerous muscles by which their move- ments are effected. The fibres are delicate, pale, and not striated. Nerves have not been certainly made out. It is in these Octocoralla that the form of skeleton which is termed a sclerobase, which is formed by cornification or 1 " Ueber Generations- Weebsel bei Steinkorallen." Leipsic, 1872. 2 Poucbet and Myevre, " Contribution a 1' Anatomie des Alcyonaires." {Journal

mi rubrum (after Lacaze-Duthiers ! ). I. The end of a branch with A, B. C, three anthozooids in different desrees of ex- pansion ; k, the mouth ; a, that part of the coenosarc which rises into a cup around t lie base of each anthozoOid. II. Portion of a branch, the ccenosarc of which has been divided longitudinally and partially removed ; 5, B', B", anthozooids in section; B, anthozooid with ex- panded tentacles; k. mouth ; m. gastric sac ; z, its inferior edge; j, mesenteries. B', anthozooid retracted, with the tentacles (d) drawn back into the intermesenteric chamDer-: c, orifices of the cavities of the invaginated tentacles ; e, circum-oral cavity ; b. the part of the body which forms the projecting tube when the antho- zoOid is expanded : a. festooned edges of the cup. B'\ anthozooid, showing the transverse sections of the mesenteries. -4, A. ccenosarc, wiih its deep longitudinal canals (/), and superficial, irregular, reticulated canals (h). P, the hard axis of the coral, with longitudinal grooves (g) answering: to the longitudinal vessels. III., IV. Free ciliated embryos. i " Histoire Naturelle clu Corail," 1864. THE ACTINOZOA. 145 calcification of the axial connective tissue of the zoantho- deme, occurs. It is an unattached simple rod in Pennatula and Veretillum, but fixed, tree-like, branched, and even retic- ulated, in the Gorgonice and the red coral of commerce ( Co- r allium). In the Alcyonia, or " Dead-men's-fingers," of our own shores, there is no sclerobase, nor is there any in Tubi- pora, the organ-coral. But, whereas in all the other Oetoco- ralla the bodies of the polyps and the ccenosarc are beset with loose spicula of carbonate of lime, Tubipora is provided with solid tubiform thecal, in which, however, there are no septa. Dimorphism has been observed by Kolliker to occur exten- sively among the Pennatulidce. Each zoanthodeme presents at least two different sets of zooids, some being fully devel- oped, and provided with sexual organs, while the others have neither tentacles nor generative organs, and exhibit some other peculiarities. 1 These abortive zooids are either scat- tered irregularly among the others (e. g., Sarcop>hyton, Vere- t ilium), or may occupy a definite position (e. g., Virgularid). In the other chief division of the Coralligena — the Hexa- coralla — the fundamental number of enteroccele chambers and of tentacles is six, 2 and the tentacles are, as a rule, rounded and conical, or filiform. The Actinozoon developed from the egg in some of the JTeozacoralla remains simple, and attains a considerable size. Of these — the Actinidce — many are to some extent locomo- tive, and some (Minyas) float freely by the help of their contractile pedal region. The most remarkable form of this group is the genus Cereanthus, which has two circlets, each composed of numerous tentacles, one immediately around the oral aperture, the other at the margin of the disk. The foot is elongated, subcorneal, and generally presents a pore at its apex. Of the diametral folds of the oral aperture, one pair is much longer than the other, and is produced as far as the pedal pore. The larva is curiously like a young hydrozoon with four tentacles, and, at one time, possesses four mesen- teries. The Zoanthidce differ from the Actinidce in little more than their multiplication by buds, which remain adherent, either by a common connecting expansion or by stolons ; and in the possession of a rudimentary, spicular skeleton. In the Antipathidce there is a sclerobasic skeleton. The proper 1 " Abhandlungen der Senkenbennschen naturforschenden Gesellschaft," xsd. vu., viu. 2 That is to say, in the adult, they are either six or some multiple of six. 146 THE ANATOMY OF INYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. stone-corals are essentially Actinia?, which become converted into zoanthodemes by gemmation or fission, and develop a continuous skeleton. The skeletal parts ' of all the Actinozoa, consist either of a substance of a horny character ; or of an organic basis im- pregnated with earthy salts (chiefly of lime and magnesia), but which can be isolated by the action of dilute acids ; or, finally, of calcareous salts in an almost crystalline state, form- ing rods or corpuscles, which, when treated with acids, leave only an inappreciable and structureless film of organic matter. The hard parts of all the Aporosa, Perforata, and Tabidata of Milne-Edwards are in the last-mentioned condition ; while, in the Octocorcdla, except Tubipora, and in the Antipathidw, and Zoanthidce, among the Hexacoralla, the skeleton is either horny ; or consists, at any rate, to begin with, of definitely formed spicula, which contain an organic basis, and frequently present a laminated structure. In the organ-coral {Tubiponi), the skeleton has the character of that of the ordinary stone- corals, except that it is perforated by numerous minute canals. The skeleton appears, in all cases, to be deposited within the mesoderm, and in the intercellular substance of that layer of the body. Even the definitely shaped spicula of the Octo- coralla seem not to result from the metamorphosis of cells. In the simple aporose corals the calcification of the base and side walls of the body gives rise to the cup or theca ; from the base the calcification extends upward in lamella?, which correspond with the interspaces between the mesenteries, and gives rise to as many vertical septa? the spaces between which are termed loculi ; while, in the centre, either by union of the septa or independently, a column, the columella, grows up. Small separate pillars between the columella and the septa are termed paluli. From the sides of adjacent septa scattered processes of calcified substance, or synapticuke, may grow out toward one another, as in the Fungidm / or the interrup- tion of the cavities of the loculi maybe more complete in consequence of the formation of shelves stretching from sep- tum to septum, but lying at different heights in adjacent loculi. These are interseptal dissepiments. Finally, in the Tabulata, horizontal plates, which stretch completely across the cavity of the theca, are formed one above the other and constitute tabular dissepiments. "« See Kolliker, u Ieones Histologic©," 1866. 2 Lacaze-Duthiers's investigations on Astrcea calycularis prove that the septa begin to be formed before the theca. THE " TABULATA." 14? In the Aporosa the theca and septa are almost invariably imperforate; but, in the Perforata, they present apertures, and, in some Madrepores, the whole skeleton is reduced to a mere network of dense calcareous substance. When the Hexacoralla multiply by gemmation or fission, and thus give rise to compound massive or arborescent aggregations, each newly-formed coral polyp develops a skeleton of its own, which is either confluent with that of the others, or is united with them by calcification of the connecting substance of the com- mon body. This intermediate skeletal layer is then termed coenenchyma. The septa in the adult Hexacoralla are often very numer- ous and of different lengths, some approaching the centre more closely than others do. Those of the same lengths are members of one " cycle ; " and the cycles are numbered ac- cording to the lengths of the septa, the longest being counted as the first. In the young, six equal septa constitute the first cycle. As the coral grows, another cycle of six septa arises by the development of a new septum between each pair of the first cycle ; and then a third cycle of twelve septa di- vides the previously existing twelve interseptal chambers into twenty-four. If we mark the septa of the first cycle A, those of the second B, and those of the third C, then the space be- tween any two septa (A A) of the first cycle will be thus rep- resented when the third cycle is formed — A C B C A. When additional septa are developed, the fourth and fol- lowing cycles do not consist of more than twelve septa each ; hence the septa of each new cycle appear in twelve of the previously existing interseptal spaces, and not in all of them; and the order of their appearance follows a definite law, which has been worked out by Milne-Edwards and Haime. Thus, the septa of the fourth cycle of twelve (d) bisect the inter- septal space A C ; and those of the fifth cycle (e) the inter- septal space B C ; the septa of the sixth cycle (f), A d and d A ; those of thes eventh cycle (g), e B and B e ; those of the eighth cycle (h), d C and C d; and those of the ninth cycle (i), C e and e C. Hence, after the formation of nine cycles, the septa added between every pair of primary septa (A, A) will be thus ar- ranged—A fdhCiegBgeiChdfA. 1 The stone-corals ordinarily known as Mlllepores are char- 1 That the order of occurrence of the septa of various lengths, at the differ- ent stages of growth of a corallite, is that indicated, seems to be clear, whatever may be the exact mode of development of the septa in each cycle. 148 THE ANATOMY OF IXYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. acterized by being traversed by numerous tubular cavities, which open at the surface, and the deeper parts of which are divided by numerous close-set transverse partitions, or tabular disseptinents, while vertical septa are rudimentary or alto- gether absent. These were regarded as Anthozoa, and classed together in the division of Tabidata, until the elder Agassiz ' published his observations on the living Millepora aleicornis, which led him to the conclusion that the Tabulata are Hydrozoa allied to Hydractinia, and that the extinct Ru- gosa were probably of the same nature. The evidence adduced by Agassiz, however, was insuffi- cient to prove his conclusions ; and the subsequent discovery by Verrill that another tabulate coral, Pocillopora, is a true Hexacorallan, while Moseley 2 has proved that Heliopora coerulea is an Octocorallan, gave further justification to those who hesitated to accept Agassiz's views. The recent very thorough and careful investigation of a species of Millepora occurring at Tahiti, 3 by Mr. Moseley, although it still leaves us in ignorance of one important point, namely, the characters of the reproductive organs, yet permits no doubt that Millepora is a true Hydrozoon allied to Hy dr actinia , as Agassiz maintained. The surface of the living Millepora presents short, broad hydranths, the mouth of which is surrounded bv four short tentacles. Around each of these alimentary zooids is disposed a zone of from five to twenty or more, much longer, mouthless zooids, over the bod- ies of which numerous short tentacles are scattered. Each of these zooids expands at its base into a dilatation, whence tubular processes proceed, which ramify and anastomose, giv- ing rise to a thin expanded hydrosoma. The calcareous mat- ter (composed as usual of carbonate, with a small proportion of phosphate of lime) forms a dense continuous crust upon the ectoderm of the ramifications of the hydrosoma, that part of it which underlies the dilatations of the zooids constituting the septa. As the first formed hydrosomal expansion is com- pleted, another is formed on its outer surface, and it dies. The "thecal" canals of the coral arise from the correspond- ence in position of the dilatations of the zooids of successive hydrosomal layers, and the tabulae are their supporting plates. Thus the group of the Tabulata ceases to exist, and its » " Natural History of the United States," vols. iii. and iv., 1860-'62. 2 Moseley, " The Structure and Relations of the Alcyonarian, Heliopora carulea" etc. (" Proceedings of the Roval Societv," November, 1875.) 3 " Proceedings of the Royal Society," 1876. THE REEF-BUILDIXG CORALS. U9 members must be grouped either with the Hexacoralla, the Octocoralla, or the Hydrozoa. The Mugosa constitute a group of extinct and mainly Palaeozoic stone-corals, the thecas of which are provided with tabular dissepiments, and generally have the septa less de- veloped than those of the ordinary stone-corals. The arrange- ment of the parts of the adult Mugosa in fours, and the bilateral symmetry which they sometimes exhibit, are inter- esting peculiarities when taken in connection with the te- tramerous and asymmetrical states of the embryonic Hexaco- ralla. On the other hand, some of the Mugosa possess oper- cula, which are comparable to the skeletal appendages of the Alcyonarian Primnoa observed by Lindstrom, and the te- tramerous arrangement of their parts suggests affinity with the Octocoralla. It seems not improbable that these ancient corals represent an intercalary type between the Hexacoralla and the Octocoralla. All the Actinozoa are marine animals. The Actinia?, among the Hexacoralla, and various forms of Octocoralla, have an exceedingly wide distribution, while the latter are found at very great depths. The stone-corals, again, have a wide range, both as respects depth and temperature, but they are most abundant in hot seas, and many are confined to such regions. Some of these stone-corals are solitary in habit, while others are social, grow- ing together in great fields, and forming what are called " coral reefs." The latter are restricted within that compara- tively narow zone of the earth's surface which lies between the isotherms of 60°, or, in other words, they do not extend for more than about 30° on either side of the equator. It is not conditions of temperature alone, however, which limit their distribution ; for, within this zone, the reef-builders are not found alive at a greater depth than from fifteen to twenty fathoms, while at the equator, an average temperature of 68° is not reached within a depth of 100 fathoms. Not only heat, then, but light, and probably rapid and effectual aeration, are essential conditions for the activitv of the reef-building Actinozoa. But, even within the coral zone, the distribution of the reef-builders appears to be singularly capricious. None are found on the west coast of Africa, very few on the east coast of South America, none on the west coast of North America ; while in the Indian Ocean, the Pa- cific, and the Caribbean Sea, they cover thousands of square 150 THE AXATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. miles. It is by no means certain, however, that any one species of West India reef-coral is identical with any East Indian species, and the corals of the central Pacific differ very considerably from those of the Indian Ocean. Different species of corals exhibit great differences as to the rapidity of their growth, and the depth at which they flourish best ; and no one must be taken as evidence for anoth- er in these respects. Certain species of Perforata (Madre- poridce and Poritidce) appear to be at once the fastest grow- ers, and those which delight in the shallowest waters. The Astrceidce among the Aporosa, and Seriatopora among the Tabulata, live at greater depths, and are probably slower of increase. Under the peculiar conditions of existence which have just been described, it would seem easy enough to compre- hend, a priori, the necessary arrangement of coral-reefs. As the reef-building Actinozoa cannot live at greater depths than twenty fathoms, or thereabouts, it is clear that no reef can be originally formed at a greater depth below the surface, and such a depth usually implies no very great distance from land. Furthermore, we should expect that the growth of the coral would fill up all the space between the shore and this farthest limit of its growth ; so that the shores of coral seas would be fringed by a sort of flat terrace of coral, covered, at most, by a very few feet of water ; that this terrace would extend out until the shelving land upon which it had grown descended to a depth of some twenty fathoms ; and that then it would suddenly end in a steep wall, the summit and upper parts of which would be crowned with overhanging ledges of living coral, while its base would be hidden by a talus of dead fragments, torn off and accumulated by the waves. Such a "fringing reef" as this, in fact, surrounds the island of Mauritius. The beach here does not gradually shelve down into the depths of the sea, but passes into a flat, irregular bank, covered by a few feet of water, and terminating at a greater or less distance from the shore in a ridge, over which the sea constantly breaks, and the seaward face of which slopes at once sheer down into fifteen or twenty fathoms of water. The structure of a fringing reef varies at different dis- tances from the land, and at different depths in its seaward face. The edge beaten by the surf is composed of living masses of Forties, and of the coral-like plant, the Nullipore ; deeper than this is a zone of Aporosa (Astrceidce), and of FRINGING REEFS.— ATOLLS. lol Millepores (Seriatopora) ; while, deeper still, all living coral ceases ; the lead bringing up either dead branches, or show- ing the existence of a flat, gently-sloping floor, the true sea- bottom, covered with fine coral sand and mud. Passing from the edge of the reef landward, the Poriticlce cease, and are replaced by a ridge of agglomerated dead branches and sand, coated with N-ullipore / the floor of the shallow basin, or "lagoon,"" inclosed between the reef and the land, is formed by a conglomerate, composed of fragments of coral cemented by mud ; and, on this, Meandrinoe and Funguv rest and flourish, exhibiting the most gaudy coloration, and sometimes attaining a great size. During storms, masses of coral are hurled on to the floor of the lagoon, and there gradually in- crease the accumulation of rocky conglomerate ; but in no other wav can a fringing" reef, which has once attained its limit in depth, increase in size, unless, indeed, the talus ac- cumulating at the foot of its outer wall should ever rise suffi- ciently high to afford a footing for the corals within their pre- scribed limits of depth. Such is the structure cf a fringing reef ; but the great majority of reefs in the Pacific are very different in their character. Along the northeastern coasts of New Holland, for instance, a vast aggregation of reefs lies at a distance from the shore which varies from a hundred to ten miles ; forming a mighty wall or barrier against the waves of the Pacific. At a few hundred yards outside this " barrier reef ' no bottom can be obtained w T ith a sounding-line of a thousand fathoms ; between the reef and the mainland, on the con- trary, the sea is hardly ever more than thirty fathoms deep. Manv of the islands of the Pacific, again, are encircled w T ith reefs corresponding exactly in their character with the barrier reef ; separated, that is, by a relatively shallow channel from the land, but facing the sea with an almost perpendicular wall which rises from a very great depth. Finally, in many cases, especially among the single reefs, which taken together constitute the great iVustralian barrier, there is no trace of any central island ; but a circular reef, usually having an opening on its leeward side, stands out in the midst of the sea. These reefs, apparently unconnected with other land, are what are called " Atolls." How have these barrier reefs, encircling reefs, and atolls, been formed ? It is certain that the fabricators of these reefs cannot live at a greater depth than in the fringing reefs. How can they have grown up, then, from a thousand fathoms 152 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. or more ? Why do they take so generally tbe circular form? What is the connection, finally, between fringing reefs and atolls? The only thoroughly satisfactory answer to these questions has been given by Mr. Darwin, from whose beauti- ful work on " Coral Reefs " I have borrowed most of the fore- going details. Consider for a moment what would be the effect of a slow and gradual submergence of the island of Mauritius — a submergence, perhaps, of a few feet in a century (at any rate, not greater than the rate of upward grow T th of coral), continued for age after age. As the edge of the fring- ing reef sank, new coral would grow up from it to the sur- face; and, as the most active and important of the reef- build- ers nourish best in the very surf of the breakers, so the margin of the reef would grow faster than its inner portion, and the discrepancy would increase as the latter, sinking deeper and deeper, became farther removed from the region of active growth. Nevertheless, the sea-bottom within the reef would constantly tend to be raised by the accumulation of frag- ments, and by the deposit of fine mud, in its sheltered and comparatively calm waters. On the other hand, on the sea- ward face of the reef, no possible extension could take place by direct growth; and that by accumulation must be exceed- ingly slow, the incessant wash of tides, waves, and currents, tending incessantly to spread any talus over a wider and wider area. Thus, then, the edge of the reef unceasingly compensates itself for the depression which it undergoes, while, inside the reef, only a partial compensation takes place, and, outside, hardly any at all. Continue the sinking process until its highest peak was but a few hundred feet above the surface, and all that would be left of Mauritius would be an island surrounded by an encircling reef ; carry on the depression further still, and a circular reef, or atoll, alone would remain. But the region of the coral-reefs is, for the most part, that of constant winds. During the whole process of growth of the reef, therefore, one of its sides — that to windward — has been exposed to more surf than that to leeward. Not only will the greater quantity of debris, therefore, have been heaped up by storms upon the windward side, but the coral-builders themselves will here have been better fed, better aerated, and consequently more active. Hence it is that, other things being alike, there is a probability that the leew r ard side of the reef will grow more slowly, and repair any damages less easily, than the windward side ; and hence, again, as a result, ANCIENT REEFS. 153 the known fact that the practicable channels of entrance into encircling reefs or atolls are usually to leeward. The winds and waves are singularly aided in grinding down the corals into mud and fragments by the Scari and Holothurioe which haunt the reefs ; the former browsing upon the living polyps, with their hard and parrot-like jaw^s, and passing a fine calcareous mud in their excrements ; the latter, more probably, swallowing only the smaller fragments and mud, and, having extracted from them such nourishment as they may contain, casting out a similar product. It is curious to reflect upon the similarity of action of these worm- like Holothurioe upon the sea-meadows of coral, to that which the Earthworms, as Darwin has shown, exert upon our land-meadows ! In the Palaeozoic period reefs like »those which have just been described appear to have abounded in our own latitudes ; and there is the most striking superficial resemblance be- tween the ancient beds of calcareous rock which record their existence, and the masses of coral limestone, hard enough to clink with a hammer, which are now being formed in the Pacific, by the processes of accumulation of coral mud and fragments, and their consolidation by percolating water. Closer examination, however, shows an important difference in the nature of the corals which compose the two reefs. The modern limestones are made up of Perforata, Millepores, and Aporosa. The ancient ones contain Millepores, but usu- ally neither Perforata nor Aporosa — both these groups being replaced by the Pugosa, none of whose members (with some doubtful exceptions) have survived the Palaeozoic period. On the other hand, Palwocyclus and Pleurodictyon are the only genera belonging to the Aporosa or Perforata, which have yet been discovered in strata of greater than mesozoic age. The Ctexophoea. 1 — These are freely-swimming marine animals, which never give rise by gemmation to compound organisms, and are always of a soft and gelatinous consist- ence, their chief bulk being made up by the greatly -devel- oped mesoderm. Many are oval or rounded (Berde, Pleuro- • Allman (" Monograph of the Tubularian Hydroids," 1871, page 3) consid- ers that the Ctenophora are more properly arranged among the Hydrozoa. I confess, however, that I see no reason to depart from the conclusion to which I was led by the study of the structure of Pleurobrachia, many years ago, that the Ctenophora are peculiarly modified Actlnozoa. 154 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. brachia, Fig. 31), while in others the body is produced into lobes (Callianira), or may even be ribbon-shaped (Cestum) ;• but, whatever their form, they present a distinct bilateral symmetry, similar parts being disposed upon opposite sides of a median plane, which is traversed by the axis of the body. The mouth is situated at one end of this axis, which may be termed the oral pole. At the opposite, or aboral pole, there is no median aperture, but usually, if not inva- riably, a pair of apertures a short distance apart. The faces of the halves of the body present four longitudinal bands of long and strong cilia, disposed in transverse rows, like so many paddles; these constitute the chief organs of locomo- tion. Each half is also often provided with a long retractile tentacle ; and lobed processes of the body, or non-retractile tentacula, may be developed on its oral face. The mouth leads into a w T ide, but flattened, gastric sac, the aboral end of which is perforated, and leads into a chamber termed the infundibulum. From the aboral face of this, a canal w 7 hich bifurcates, or two canals, lead to the aboral apertures. On opposite sides of the infundibulum a canal is given off toward the middle of each half of the body, which sooner or later divides into two, and these two again subdivide, so that four canals, which diverge and radiate toward the inner faces of the rows of paddles, are eventually formed. Having reached the surface, each radiating canal enters a longitudinal canal, which underlies the row of paddles, and may give off branches, or unite w T ith the other longitudinal canals in a circular canal at the aboral end of the body. In addition, two other canals, which run parallel with each flat face of the gastric sac, open into the infundibulum. And, when retractile tentacula are present, their cavities also communicate with the same cham- ber. The entire system of canals is in free communication with the gastric cavity, and corresponds with the enteroccele of an Actinia. Indeed, an Actinia with only eight mesenter- ies, and these exceedingly thick, w T hereby the intermesenteric chambers would be reduced to canals ; with two aboral pores instead of the one pore, which exists in Cereanthus / and with eight bands of cilia corresponding with the reduced intermesenteric chambers, would have all the essential pecu- liarities of a Ctenophoran. The question whether the Ctenophora possess a nervous system or not is still under debate. Between the aboral aper- tures there is a rounded cellular body, on which there is THE CTEXOPHORA. 155 seated, in many cases, a sac containing solid particles, like one of the lithocysts of the medusiform Hydrozoa. I see no reason to doubt that the rounded body is a ganglion and the sac a rudimentary auditory organ. Bands which radiate from the ganglion to the rows of paddles may be regarded as nerves ; though they may contain other than nervous structures. 1 The ova and spermatozoa are developed in the lateral walls of the longitudinal canals, which correspond with the faces of the mesenteries in the Coralligena, and the sexes are usually united in the same individual. Fig. 31.— Diagram of Pleurobrachia.—a. month : b. stomach : c, in fundi buluin ; tf, horizontal canal ; e, one of its branches dividing again at / into two branches which open into the longitudinal canals, g g, parallel with which the ciliated area runs: h, sac of the tentacle, L with one of its branches, k ; /, canal run- ning by the side of the stomach: m, tentaculigerous canal; n ;?, canals opening at theaboral apertures, o, on each side of p, the ganglion and lithocyst. 1 Grant originally described a nervous ganglionated ring, whence longitu- dinal cords proceeded in Cydippe (Pleurobrathia), but his observation has not been verified by subsequent investigators. According to Milne-Edwards, fol- lowed by others (among whom I must include myself), the nervous system consists of a ganglion, situated at the aboral pole of the body, whence nerves radiate, the most conspicuous of which are eight cords which run down the corresponding series of paddles ; and a sensory organ, having the characters of an otolithic sac, is seated upon the ganglion. Agassiz and Kolliker, on the other hand, have denied that the appearances described (though they really exist) are justly interpreted. And again, though the body, described as an otolithic sac, undoubtedly exists in the position indicated in all or most of the Cterwphora, the question has been raised whether it is an auditory or visual organ. These problems have been recently reinvestigated with great care, and by the aid of the refined methods of modern histoloorv, by Dr. Eimer, whose de- scnption of the nervous system has already been quoted {supra, p. 63). 156 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. The development of the Ctenophora has recently been thoroughly investigated by Kowalewsky and by A. Agassiz (" Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," 1874). The laid egg is contained in a spacious capsule, and con- sists of an external thin layer of protoplasm, which, in some cases, is contractile, investing an inner vesicular substance. After fecundation, the vitellus thus constituted divides into two, four, and finally eight masses ; on one face of each of these the protoplasmic layer accumulates, and is divided off as a blastomere of much smaller size than that from which it arises. By repeated division, each of these gives rise to still smaller blastomeres, which become distinctly nucleated when they have reached the number of thirty-two, and form a layer of cells, which gradually spreads round the large blas- tomeres, and invests them in a complete blastodermic sac. At the pole of this sac, on the face opposite to that on which these blastoderm-cells begin to make their appearance, an ingrowth or involution of the blastoderm takes place, which, extending through the middle of the large yelk-masses tow- ard the opposite pole, gives rise to the alimentary canal. This, at first, ends by a rounded blind termination ; but from it, at a later period, prolongations are given off which be- come the canals of the enteroccele. At the opposite pole, in the centre of the region corre- sponding with that in which the cells of the blastoderm first make their appearance, the nervous ganglion is developed by metamorphosis of some of these cells. The invaginated portion of the blastoderm, which gives rise to the alimentary canal, appears to answer to the hypo- blast, while the rest corresponds with the epiblast. The large blastomeres which become inclosed between the epi- blast and hypoblast in the manner described seem to serve the purpose of a food-yelk ; and the space which they origi- nally occupied is eventually filled by a gelatinous connective tissue, which possibly derives its origin from wandering cells of the epiblast. In those Ctenophora the bodies of which depart widely from the globular form in the adult state, the young undergo a sort of metamorphosis after they leave the egg, and have acquired all the essential characters of the group to which they belong. As might be expected from their extreme softness and perishable nature, no fossil Ctenophora are known. CHAPTER IV. THE TURBELLARIA, THE ROTTFERA, THE TREMATODA, AND THE CESTOIDEA. The Turbellaria. — The animals which constitute this group inhabit fresh and salt water and damp localities on land. The smallest are not larger than some of the Infusoria, which they approach very closely in appearance, while the largest may attain a length of many feet. Some are broad, flattened, and discoidal, while others are extremely elongated and relatively narrow. None are divided into distinct seg- ments, except the genus Alaurina, in which there are four ; and the ectoderm, which constitutes the outer surface of the body, is everywhere beset with vibratile cilia. Rod-like bodies, similiar to those met with in some Infusoria and in many Annelida, are often imbedded in its substance, and in some genera (e. g., Microstomum, Thysanozoon) true thread- cells occur. Stiff setae project from the ectoderm in some species. The aperture of the mouth is sometimes situated at the anterior end of the body, sometimes in the middle, or toward the posterior end, of its ventral face. In many, the oral aperture is surrounded by a flexible muscular lip, which some- times takes on the form of a protrusible proboscis. A definite digestive cavity can hardly be said to exist in the lowest Turbellaria (e. g., Convoluta) in which the endo- dermal cells are not arranged in such a manner as to bound a central alimentary cavity, and the food finds its way through the interstices of an endodermal parenchyma. In the higher forms, the alimentary cavity, which may be simple or rami- fied, provided with an anal aperture or without one, is lined by the endoderm, between w T hich and the ectoderm is an in- terspace more or less completely occupied by the connective and muscular tissues of the mesoderm. Hence there is no definite perivisceral cavity. 158 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. The Turbellaria possess vessels of two kinds : 1. Water- vessels, which open externally by one or more pores, and are ciliated. When these vessels are present, there are usually two chief lateral trunks, from which many branches are given oif. It is probable that the ultimate ends of these branches open into lacunar interspaces between the elements of the tissues of the mesoderm. 2. JPseud-hcemal vessels, which ap- pear to form a closed system, usually consisting of one median dorsal and two lateral trunks, which anastomose anteriorly and posteriorly. The walls of these vessels are contractile and not ciliated, and their contents are clear, and may be colored. These two systems of vessels have been shown by Schulze to coexist in Tetrastemma. The nervous system con- sists of two ganglia placed in the anterior end of the body, from which, in addition to other branches, a longitudinal cord extends backward on each side of the body. In some cases, these lateral trunks exhibit ganglionic enlargements, from which nerves are given off; and they may become approxi- mated on the ventral side of the body, thereby showing a tendency to the formation of the double ganglionated chain characteristic of higher worms. Most possess eyes, and some have auditory sacs. The Turbellaria are both monoecious and dioecious, and the reproductive organs vary from the utmost simplicity of structure to considerable complexity. In most, the embryo passes by insensible gradations into the form of the adult, but some undergo a remarkable metamor- phosis. The Turbellaria are divisible into two groups. In the one, the Aprocta, the digestive cavity is csecal, having no anal aperture ; in the other, the JProctucha, it is provided with an anal opening. The two groups form parallel series, in each of which organization advances, from forms which are little more than gastrulae provided with reproductive organs, to animals of relatively high organization. In the simplest of the Aprocta, such as Macrostomum, 1 the oral opening is devoid of any protrusible muscular proboscis, and the aliment- ary sac is a simple straight bag. The male and female gen- erative organs are united in the same individual, and each consists of an aggregation of cells; which, in the former case, gradually enlarge, fill with yelk-granules, and become ova; while, in the latter, they are converted into spermatozoa. The generative cells are contained within a sac, which opens 1 E. Van Beneden, " Recherches sur la Composition et la Signification de I'CEuf," 1870, p. 64. THE TURBELLARIA. 159 externally by a median pore on the oral face of the body, the male aperture being posterior to the female. The margins of the male aperture are produced into a curved prominence, the penis. Those Turbellaria which resemble Macrostomum in having a straight, simple digestive cavity, are termed Rhabdocoela. They, for the most part, possess a buccal proboscis, which is capable of being protruded from, or retracted into a chamber mm '?4!»w mv;. H m Fig. 32. — Opisthomum (after Schulze).— a, central nervous system : ramifications of the water-vessels are seen close to it; b. mouth; c, proboscis; d, testes; e, vasa deferentia; /, vesicula seminalis ; g, penis ; h, sexual aperture ; i, vagina ; k, sper- raatheca ; ?, germarium; m, viteliarium ; n, uterus with two ova inclosed within their hard shells. formed by the walls of the circum-oral region of the body (Fig. 32, c). In some (e. g., Prostomum) the anterior end of the body is 11 160 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. provided with a second hollow muscular proboscidiform organ, which may be termed the frontal proboscis. In all the higher rhabdoccelous Turbellaria, the female generative apparatus becomes complicated by the presence of a special gland, the vitellarium (Fig. 32, m), in which an accessory vitelline substance is formed. There is a single or double germarium (Fig. 32, I), having nearly the same struct- ure as the ovary of Macrostomum, and the ova are formed in it in the same way. When detached, however, they con- tain no vitelline granules ; but the two vitellaria, which are long and simple or branched tubes, open into the oviduct ; and the vitelline matter which they secrete envelops the proper ovum, and becomes more or less fused with it, as it passes into the uterine continuation of the oviduct connected with the outer, or vaginal, end of the uterus. There is usually a spermatheca, or receptacle for the seminal fluid (Fig. 32, k), and the eggs, after impregnation, are inclosed within a hard shell (Fig. 32, n). The testes and vasa deferentia (Fig. 32, d, e) generally have the form of two long tubes. The penis is often eversible and covered with spines (Fig. 32, g). In some genera a difference is observed between the eggs produced in summer, which have a soft vitelline membrane, and those produced later. These so-called winter ova have hard shells. The water-vascular system consists of lateral trunks, which open by a terminal pore, or by many pores, and give off numerous ramifications. They are not contractile, but their inner surface is ciliated. Many of the Mhabdoccela multiply by transverse fission ; and, in the genus Catemda, the incompletely separated ani- mals produced in this way swim about in long chains. The vitellus of the impregnated ovum undergoes complete yelk-divison, and the embryos pass directly into the form of the parent ; but the precise nature of the steps of the devel- opmental process requires further investigation. However, there seems little reason to doubt that the ectoderm and en- doderm are formed by delamination. In the remaining Aprocta, termed Dendrocoela, the diges- tive cavity gives off many caecal, frequently branched, pro- cesses into the mesoderm, one of which is always median and anterior (Fig. 33) ; and the mouth is always provided with a proboscis. Some (Procotyld) have a frontal proboscis, and others (JBdellura) a posterior sucker. The animals commonly THE DENDROCCELA. 161 known as Planarim belong to this division. Some are ma- rine, some fresh-water, and some terrestrial. In the fresh-water forms, the female reproductive appa- ratus has a distinct vitellarium, as in the higher Hhabdocoela, and there is only one common genital aperture. But, in the marine Planariaz (Fig. 33), there is no vitellarium ; the ova- ries and testes are numerous, and scattered through the meso- derm, being connected with the exterior by ramifications of the oviducts and of the vasa deferentia. A ramified gland, which secretes a viscid albumen or envelope for the eggs, Fig. 33.—Polycelis (Leptoplana) laevigata (after Quatrefage?).— a, mouth; £>, buccal cavity; c, oesophageal orifice ; d, stomach ; hnentale," 1873.) THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARTHWORM. 197 ated one on each side of every segment except the first, and attached to the posterior mesenteric septum of the segment. Each canal communicates internally, by a wide funnel-shaped ciliated aperture, with the perivisceral cavity, while external- ly it opens by a minute pore, which is usually close to the in- ternal pair of seta?. 1 A colorless fluid, containing colorless corpuscles, and an- swering to the blood of other invertebrated animals, occu- pies the perivisceral cavity ; but, in addition to this, there is a deep-red fluid, devoid of corpuscles, which fills a very large- ly developed system of pseud-haemal vessels. These consist of longitudinal and transverse principal trunks, and of very numerous branches which proceed from them and ramify in all parts of the body, except the cuticle and hypodermis. The longitudinal trunks are three : one supra-intestinal^ which lies along the dorsal aspect of the alimentary canal ; one sub-intestinal, which corresponds with this on the ven- tral aspect of that canal ; and one sub-neural, which lies be- neath the ganglionic cord. The supra-intestinal and sub-intestinal vessels are con- nected in the greater number of the segments by pairs of com- missural transverse trunks, which embrace the intestine, and give off numerous branches to it. The supra-intestinal and sub-neural vessels give off transverse trunks into the mesenter- ic septa, which branch out into the muscular layers, and some of which anastomose so as to form a second set of transverse communications. Moreover, the sub-neural trunk and the sub-intestinal trunk respectively send branches to each seg- mental organ, upon which they are distributed, and, anastomo- sing, give" rise to another series of communications between the longitudinal trunks. In the seven most anterior segments, the longitudinal vessels break up into a network, and there are no distinct transverse commissural vessels. Behind these, and in the region of the generative apparatus, the commissural vessels are greatly dilated, and form from five to eight pairs of so- called hearts which are attached to the anterior faces of as many mesenteries. These contract from the dorsal toward the ventral side. The nervous system consists of two cerebral ganglia lodged above the pharynx in the third segment, and united 1 Gegenbaur, " Ueberdie sogenanntenRespirationsorgane des Regenwurms." (Zeitschriftfur wiss. Zoologie, 1852.) 198 THE AX ATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. by commissural cords with the anterior ganglia of the chain, which extends through the whole length of the body on the ventral wall of the perivisceral cavity. There are no eyes, nor are any other organs of special sense known. The Earthworm is hermaphrodite. The testes are two pairs of large sacs, each of the anterior pair being bilobed. The testes of opposite sides are united in a common median reservoir, situated in the tenth and eleventh segments, from which, on each side, ducts take their origin. The two ducts of the testes of the same side unite into a single vas deferens, and these two vasa deferentia open externally on the ventral aspect of the fifteenth segment. The ovaries are two minute solid bodies, not more than -^ of an inch long, attached to the posterior face of the mesenteric septum which separates the twelfth and thirteenth segments. They therefore lie in the cavity of the latter. The oviducts are quite distinct from the ovaries, and open internally by wide, funnel-shaped aper- tures, situated in the cavity of the thirteenth segment. From these funnel-shaped ends the oviducts are continued, as slender tubes, through the mesenteric septum which separates the thirteenth from the fourteenth segment, and open on the ventral face of the latter. Four globular spermathecag, or receptacles of the sper- matozoa, are situated, two on each side, in the tenth and eleventh segments, and open on the ventral face between the ninth and tenth and the tenth and eleventh segments respectively. These are filled when copulation takes place, during which process the two worms are said to be bound together by a tough secretion of their clitella. The development of the Oligochceta has recently been carefully investigated by Kowalewsky. The eggs of the Earthworm are laid in chitinous cocoons cr cases, which are probably secreted by the clitella. In addition to the eggs, the cocoons inclose an albuminous fluid, and packets of sper- matozoa. The vitellus is invested by a membrane, and con- tains a germinal vesicle and spot. Complete yelk-division takes place, and eventually the blastoccele becomes reduced to a mere cleft. The blastomeres are disposed in two layers — one consisting of small and the other of large blastomeres. The embrvo thus formed becomes concave on the side formed by the large blastomeres, until it assumes the form of a sac, ciliated externally, with an opening, the future mouth, at one end ; the cavity of the sac being the primitive alimentary THE POLYCH.ETA. 199 canal, and the layer of large blastomeres, the hypoblast. Be- tween the two, a mesoblastic layer appears, but the exact manner of its origin is not known. On one face of the sac- cular embryo the mesoblast becomes divided into a series of quadrate masses, like the protovertebrae of a vertebrate em- bryo, disposed symmetrically on each side of a median line, which corresponds with the future ventral median line of the body. Along this line, the epiblast becomes thickened in- ward, and the thickening is converted into the ganglionic chain. At the same time, each quadrate mass of the meso- blast is excavated by the development of a cavity in its in- terior, whereby it becomes converted into a sort of sac. The adjacent anterior and posterior walls of successive sacs unite, and give rise to the mesenteric septa, while their cavities become the chambers of the perivisceral cavity. The seg- mental organs commence as cellular outgrowths from the posterior face of each septum thus formed, and only subse- quently become excavated and communicate with the exte- rior. The development of the Earthworm, therefore, closely re- sembles that of the ITirudmea, and more especially that of the Medicinal Leech, in which the digestive cavity of the embryo would seem to be formed, as in the Earthworm, by a process which is, in a sense, invagination. It would appear that the first-formed aperture is the mouth ; while the anus is a secondary perforation; and the segmentation of the body commences in the mesoblast. In the fresh-water Oligochceta, Euaxes and Tubife-x, the vitellus also becomes divided into large and small blastomeres. The latter extend over the larger blastomeres, and form the epiblast (= ectoderm). A mesoblast (= mesoderm), divided into two broad longitudinal bands, is developed, and the oral cavity is said to be formed by invagination of the epiblast between the anterior ends of the two bands of the mesoblast. In this case, the mouth in these genera is a secondary forma- tion. The innermost layer of large blastomeres becomes the hypoblast (= endodermj. 1 The Polych^eta. — Except that the Polychceta are almost invariably dioecious and marine, while the OlU/ochceta are monoecious, and inhabitants either of land or fresh water, it 1 Kcrwalewskv, " Ernbryologische Studien." (" Memoires de l'Academie de St. P6tersbourg," 1S61.) 200 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. is hard to say what absolute characters separate these two groups. The lowest forms of the Polychceta, such as Capi~ tella and Polyophthalmus, might be regarded as marine dioe- cious Naidw. But, in the higher Polyehmta^ each segment of the body develops lateral processes — the parapodia, or rudimentary limbs, which are usually provided with abundant strong setae ; a distinct cephalic segment, the prcestomium, appears in front of and above the mouth, and bears eyes and tentacles ; while those parapodia which lie in the vicinity of the mouth may be specially modified in form and direction, foreshadowing the jaws of the Arthropoda. Ciliated, some- times plumose, processes of the dorsal walls of more or fewer of the segments may perform the office of external branchiae / and, occasionally, the dorsal surface gives rise to flat shield- like processes, the so-called elytra. The following detailed description of a very common species of Polynde will give a fair conception of a polychae- tous Annelid, in which the highest degree of complexity of organization known in the group is attained : Polynde squamata is an elongated vermiform animal, about an inch long, the body of which is divided into a suc- cession of portions, for the most part similar and equivalent to one another, but presenting peculiar modifications at the anterior and posterior extremities. Each such portion is properly termed a somite / while the term "segment" may be retained to indicate generally a portion of the body, with- out implying its precise equivalency to one somite or to many. Thus, then, the body of the Polynde is composed of a series of twenty-six " somites," terminated anteriorly by a "segment," the pra?stomium ("Kopf-lappen," Grube), and posteriorly by another, the pygidium, which may or may not represent single somites. If one of the somites from the middle of the body (Fig. 51, C, D) be examined separately, it will be found to be transversely elongated, so as to be about three times as broad as it is long, and to be slightly convex above and below, presenting a deep, median, longitudinal groove inferiorly. Laterally the somite is produced into two thick processes, the "parapodia" Each parapodium divides at its extremity into two por- tions, a superior and an inferior, which may be denominated respectively the notopodium (Fig. 51, i) and the neitropodium (&), the one occupying the " haemal " or dorsal, the other the "neural" or ventral aspect. The latter is, in this species POLYNOE SQUAMATA. 201 so much the larger, that the notopodium appears like a mere tubercle projecting from its upper surface. In other Anne- lida, however, and in the young state of Polynoe, the notopo- Fig. 51.— Polynoe squamata. A. Viewed from above and enlarged : a. 5, c, etc., as in Fig. 53, B ; £, elytra ; /, space left between the two posterior elytra ; g, setae and fimbria? of the elytra. B. Posterior extremity, inferior view: d, pygidial cirri; h, inferior tubercle; c, c', notopodial and neuropodial cirri. C. Section of half a somite with elytron : i, notopodium ; A", neuropodium. D. Section of half a somite with cirrus. dium is as large as the neuropodium. Both divisions of the parapodia are armed with peculiar stiff, hair-like appendages (g), composed of cbitin, and developed within diverticula of the integment, or trichophores, in which their bases always remain inclosed. These can be protruded and retracted by muscles attached to their sacs, and they vary exceedingly in form. Three distinct kinds are observable in Polynoe alone. The notopodium and the neuropodium carry each a single, sharp, style-like aciculum, the greater part of the length of which is imbedded in the parapodium and its divisions, while the point just projects at about the centre of the latter. The neuropodial is very much longer than the notopodial aciculum. 202 THE ANATOMY OF IN VERTEB RATED ANIMALS. Superiorly, the notopodium carries two transverse rows oi more slender organs of a similar nature, the setae : the proxi- mal set are much shorter than the distal, but even the latter do not attain a length of more than -f^ of an inch (Fig. 52, Gr). The proximal set are somewhat knife-like in shape if viewed in profile, consisting of a comparatively short, straight "han- dle," by which they are imbedded in their sacs, and of a thick, rounded, curved blade, tapering to a fine point at its extrem- ity. Close-set transverse ridges, finely serrated at their edges, and inclined obliquely to the surface of the blade, traverse its convex anterior circumference, leaving the back free. The distal setae (Fig. 52, G) have a very similar structure, but they are much elongated and very slender. The handle is longer ; and the blade, little curved and simply set on an angle with m Fig. Z&.—Polynoe squamata. A, elytron viewed from above. B, a tooth. C, D, neuroporlial setae. E, F, parts of the blade of the same, more highly magnified. G, free extremity of a notopodial seta. the handle, is produced at the end into a long and delicate filament. The base of the blade (E) is beset with incomplete POLYXOE SQUAMATA. 203 ridges, like those of the short setae, but toward the middle (F) these ridges appear to encircle the blade completely, as- suming the aspect of so many closely -imbricated concentric scales, before finally becoming obsolete upon the extremity of the seta. The neuropoclial aciculum needs no special notice, except that the extremity of its trichophore projects as a sort of papilla, less obvious in full-grown specimens, which divides the neuropodium into an upper and a lower portion, the for- mer containing about half as many setae as the latter. The apertures of the trichophores are placed between lobe-like prolongations of the neuropodium, to which the special term of labia (Grube) may be applied. In this species they pre- sent no remarkable peculiarity beyond their inequality. The neuropodial setae (Fig. 52, C, Z*), although at first sight very different from the notopodial setae, are, in truth, constructed on essentially the same plan, the blade being short, while the handle is proportionally elongated. The blade is subcylindrical at its base, pointed and slightly curved. Eight or nine transverse ridges extend around about two-thirds of the circumference of its proximal half ; the basal ridges are narrow, and merely serrated, but toward the apex the ridges become deeper, and the serrations pass into strong teeth ; at the same time, one side of the ridge is elongated into a strong point. Attached to the under surface of the parapodium by a somewhat enlarged base, with which it is articulated, is a smooth, conical, very flexible filament — the neuropodial cir- rus (Fig. 51, c') ; it hardly reaches to the end of the neuro- podium. Again, springing from the neural surface of the somite, close to the parapodium, there is a small pyriform tubercle (A), divided by longitudinal grooves into about eight segments. This is possibly connected with the reproductive function. The appendage of the notopodium, or rather of the noto- podial side of the parapodium and somite, varies according to the particular somite which may be examined. In some somites this appendage is a cirrus (Fig. 51, D, c) similar to the neuropodial cirrus, but much larger, equaling the semi- diameter of the body in length, and presenting an enlarged pigmented bulb of attachment to which the filament of the cirrus, which is cylindrical for about two-thirds of its length, and then becomes enlarged and suddenly tapers to its extrem- ity, is articulated. 204 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. In the other somites the notopodial appendage is a large, thin, oval plate — the elytron (Fig. 51, C\ c). It is attached by a thick peduncle, and has its long axis directed obliquely outward and backward. The surface of the elytron (Fig. 52, A) is covered with an ornamentation of larger or smaller tubercular prominences, granulated and ridged upon their surface. A part of the inner and anterior edge of each ely- tron overlaps or is overlapped by its fellows for a certain ex- tent of its circumference, which is so far smooth, but in the rest of its extent it is fringed with coarse brownish filaments or jimbrice, which arise from the upper surface just within the edge, and are obviously outgrowths of the same order as the tubercles. Such is the structure of one of the middle somites of Polynbe squamata. The anterior and posterior somites, with the exception of the first and second, present only minor dif- ferences, as in the proportion of the setas, or in the figure of the elytra. The first somite, which contains the mouth, is the peristomium (" Mund-Segment " of Grube). The parapodia of this somite are narrow and elongated (Fig. 53, B, (7, m) ; they are obscurely divided at their extremity into a rudimen- tary neuropodium and notopodium, and give attachment to a pair of large peristomial cirri (c r c) (" cirrhes tentaculaires," Audouin and Milne-Edwards ; " Fuhler-cirren," Grube), of the same structure as the notopodial cirri, which stretch for- ward by the sides of the mouth. The apex of a single small aciculum issues rather above the point of division of the peristomial parapodium, and two minute curved setae accompany it. These have been generally overlooked ; ] but they seem to demonstrate, in a very inter- esting manner, the nature of the appendages of the peristo- mial segment. The second somite differs from the rest only in the great elongation of its neuropodial cirrus, which is directed forward and applied against the mouth. The peristomium and the praestomium together are ordi* narily confounded under the common term of " head." The latter (Fig. 53, JB, (7, I) is an oval segment flattened superior- ly, placed altogether in front of and above the mouth, pre- senting on its postero lateral edges four dark spots, the eyes, and possessing five cirriform appendages, two pairs and a 1 At least, in the descriptions of the adult Polynoe. They are particularly- mentioned, however, by Max Midler in his valuable paper, " Ueber die Ent- wickelung und Metamorphose der Polynoen." {Mailer's Archiv, 1841.) POLYNOE SQUAMATA. 205 single median one. The latter (a), or the prcestomial tentacle (" antenne mediane," Milne-Edwards), is similar in structure to an ordinary cirrus. Of the other appendages, the upper one upon each side (supero-lateral praestomial cirrus, " an- tenne mitoyenne ") also resembles an ordinary cirrus (b) ; but the lower (infero-lateral prasstomial cirrus, " antenne ex- terne ") (b 1 ) is much larger, and is capable of extreme elon- Fig. 53-—Polynoe squamata. A. Posterior extremity from above : c, notopodial cirrus of last somite; d, pygidial cirri ; x, anus. B. Anterior extremity from above : a, prgestomial tentacle ; &, superior and b' inferior prsestomial cirrus ; c, c', notopodial and neuropodial cirri ; e, peduncle of first elytron ; I, praestomium ; m, parapodium of peristomium. C. Inferior view of anterior extremity, letters as before. gation and contraction, 1 while the ordinary cirri are merely flexible. Although at first sight probable, yet it would ap- pear, from Max Muller's account of the development of Poly- noe, that these two appendages do not, like the two peristo- mial cirri which they essentially resemble, correspond with the notopodial and neuropodial cirri of a single parapodium, inasmuch as they arise from perfectly distinct portions of the praestomium. It is very possible that each represents the appendage of a somite, and in this case the praestomium would be composed of at least two somites. Whether the praestomial tentacle indicates another, or whether it is merely 1 1 have never observed any invagination such as is stated to occur by Audouin and Milne-Edwards, 1834. (" Histoire Naturelle du Littoral de la France,'* p. 10.) 206 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. an appendage of such a nature as the labrum or the rostrum of a Crustacean, there is no evidence at present to show. It is highly interesting to remark that thus, in the Poly- noe, as in the Arthropoda, the "head " results from the modi- fication of a number of somites, some of which lie in front of, and others behind, the mouth. The movements and evident extreme sensitiveness of the inferior praestomial cirri during life indicate that they perform the functions, as well as occupy the position, of antennae. The hindermost segment of the body, or pygidium (Fig. 51, B, Fig. 53, A), is narrow, and divided at the end into two supports for the pygidial (d) cirri which are as long as the three last somites, and resemble the notopodial cirri in form and structure. They extend directly backward, almost paral- lel with one another, and with the notopodial cirri of the last somite, w T hich are thrown backward and downward (Fig. 53, A, c). It seems probable that the pygidium represents only a single somite. The anus is not terminal, as in many Annelids, but is seated in the middle of a strongly-raised papilla (Fig. 53, A, a?), which projects from the dorsal surface of the penulti- mate somite ; its sides are produced into about fourteen folds. The two last elytra have their edges excavated, so as to leave a space over the anus (Fig. 51, A,f). The notopodial cirri and the elytra do not coexist upon the same somites ; and the order of arrangement of the ely- trigerous and cirrigerous somites is very curious. The 1st or peristomial somite is cerrigerous, and so are the 3d, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 22d, 24th, 25th, and 26th ; while the 2d, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, loth, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 23d, somites bear elytra, making twelve pairs in all. In no polychaatous Annelid is the structure of a somite more complex than in Polynoe ; and there are but very few parts not found in Polynoe to be met with in other Annelida. The careful study of this species, therefore, furnishes us w T ith an almost complete nomenclature for the external organs of the whole group ; and it will be found that the other forms of Annelida differ mainly in the greater or less development and modification of the organs which have just been de- scribed. A large proportion of the Polychceta are like Poly- noe, free and actively locomotive animals, which rarely fabri- cate tubular habitations, and are therefore termed Errantia / they possess a praestomium, usually provided with eyes and feelers, and have many parapodia, which are not confined to THE POLYCILETA. 207 the anterior region of the body. They very generally have a proboscis, provided with chitinous teeth. The singular genus, Tomopteris, is a transparent pelagic Annelid, with numerous parapodia, each terminated by two lobes representing the neuropodium and notopodium, but with setae, two of which are very long, only in the cephalic region. The sedentary Annelids (Tubicola) fabricate tubes, either by gluing together particles of sand and shells, or by secret- ing a chitinous or calcined shelly substance, in which they remain (e. g\, Protula, Fig. 54). The praestomium is small or wanting ; none have a proboscis ; there are no cirri ; and the parapodia are short or rudimentary. The branchias are devel- oped only on the anterior somites, and the latter are often markedly different from those which constitute the posterior part of the body. In some (Serpulidoe) a tentacle is enlarged and its end secretes a shelly plate which serves as an operculum, and shuts down over the mouth of the calcareous tube inhabited by the animal, when it is retracted. The dilated end of the opercular tentacle sometimes serves as a chamber in which the young undergo their development (species of Spiro7 , bis). The alimentary canal of the polychsetous Annelida rarely presents any marked distinction between stomach and intes- tine, and is almost always of the same length as the body, ex- tending, without folds or convolutions, from its anterior to its posterior extremity ; but in Sip>honostomum (Chlorcema), Pectinaria and others, it is more or less convoluted. It is attached by membranous bands, or more complete mesenteries, to the walls of each somite, and very commonly presents a dila- tation between every pair of mesenteries. In most Polychoeta, the intestine acquires in this way merely a moniliform appear- ance, but in Polynoe, Aphrodite, Sigalion, and their allies, long caeca are given off upon each side of the alimentary canal, and, sometimes becoming more or less convoluted, ter- minate at the upper part of each segment (Fig. 51, D) close beneath, or in the branchiae, w r here such organs exist. The anterior portion of the alimentary canal is, in a great number of the Polychmta, in fact in all the typical Errantia, so modified as to constitute a distinct muscular pharynx, the anterior portion of the wall of which can be everted like the finger of a glove, from the aperture of the mouth, and the posterior portion protruded, so as to form a proboscis. In Polynbe sqi/amata, the proboscis is one-fourth as long as the 14 208 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. Fig. 54.— Protula Dysteri. A, the sexual, mature animal, extracted from its calca- reous tube : «, branchial plumes ; 6, hood-like expansion of the anterior end of the body; c, the mouth; d, the stomach; e, the anus ;/, the testes ; g, the ova. B, a Protula in course of proliferation ; £>, the branchiae of the zooid. body, and its walls are very thick and muscular. At its an- terior extremity it is surrounded with a circle of small papil- lae, immediately behind which are four strong, pointed and curved horny teeth, implanted in the muscular wall (Fig. 52, THE POLYCHJETA. 209 J3). Each tooth has a little projection upon its convex edge, which is connected by a short strong ligament with the cor- responding projection of another tooth ; and the one pair of teeth, thus connected, works vertically against the opposite pair. In Nereis, there are two powerful teeth which work horizontally, besides minute accessory denticles. In Syllis, the chitinous lining of the pharynx is produced into a circle of sharp teeth anteriorly, and there is, in addition, a much stronger triangular median tooth. In Glycerol, which pos- sesses a pair of teeth, the extremity of the protruded pro- boscis is covered with very remarkable papillae. The most complex arrangement of teeth, however, is that presented by the Eunicidce. In Eunice, there are altogether nine distinct pieces : two large, flat, more or less calcified portions united together below, and three cutting and tearing teeth on the right side w 7 orking against four on the left. As has has been already stated, the tubicolar Annelids possess neither probos- cis nor teeth. No special hepatic gland appears to exist in the Annelida, unless the intestinal caeca perform that function, and the secretion of the bile is doubtless effected by the glandular tract, which extends for a greater or less distance in the walls of the alimentary canal. A pair of glandular caeca, the func- tion of which is not known, is appended to the base of the proboscis in Nereis. The general cavity of the body, or perivisceral cavity, which is included between the parietes of the alimentary canal and those of the bodv, is filled with a fluid which con- tains corpuscles, which are usually, as in«the Invertebrata in general, colorless. They are red, however, in Glycera, and in a species of Apneumea (De Quatrefages). The parapodia, the cirri, the branchiae, and all the other important appendages of the Polychceta, contain a cavity continuous with the peri- visceral cavity, and are therefore equally filled with the blood. The circulation of this fluid is effected partly by the contrac- tion of the body and its appendages, partly by the vibratile cilia, with which a greater or less extent of the walls of the perivisceral cavity is covered. In a great number of the Polychceta no part of the body is specially adapted to perform the function of respiration, the aeration of the blood probably taking place wherever the integument is sufficiently thin ; and, even when distinct branchiae ordinarily exist, members of the same family may be deprived of them. In Polynbe squamata, ciliated spots 210 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. which appear to represent branchiae, may be discovered on the dorsal side of the bases of the parapodia, at any rate, in young specimens. In some species of Polynoe the parapodia give rise, at corresponding points, to large, richly ciliated, malleiform tubercles, in which the caeca of the alimentary canal terminate. In Sigalion, a filiform, ciliated branch ia depends from the upper part of the somite, beneath the ely- tron ; and, besides this, curious little ciliated palettes are arranged upon the dorsal surface of the parapodia, and upon the sides of the anterior somites. But the best-developed branchiae among these Annelids are possessed by the Amphl- nomidoe, and the Euniddce among the Errantia ; the Tere- bellidw, and the Serpulidoe among the Tubicola. In the three former families the branchiae are ciliated branched plumes, or tufts, attached to the dorsal surface of more or fewer of the somites. In the last (Fig. 54) they are exclu- sively attached to the anterior segment of the body, and present the form of two large plumes, each consisting of a principal stem, with many lateral branches. The stem is supported by a kind of internal skeleton, of cartilaginous consistence, which sends off processes into the lateral branches. I have been unable to find any pseud-haemal vessels in Polynoe squamata, and, as Claparede x could discover none in the transparent P. lunidata, it is safe to assume their non- existence. Cla.parede, in fact, denies them to the whole of the Aphroditidm. When it is present, the pseud-haemal svstem varies very much in the arrangement of its great trunks ; but they com- monly consist of one or two principal longitudinal dorsal and ventral vessels, which are connected in each somite by trans- verse branches. Where branchiae exist, loops or processes of one or other of the great trunks enter them. The dorsal and the ventral trunks are usually rhythmically contractile, and contractile dilatations at the bases of the branchiae (Eunice), in portions of the lateral trunks (Arenicola), or in those which supply the proboscis (Eunice, Nereis), have received the name of " hearts." The direction of the contractions is usually such that the blood is propelled from behind forward in the dorsal vessel, and in the opposite direction in the ven- tral vessel ; but the course which it pursues in the lateral trunks is probably very irregular. In Chlorcema, in which even the smallest ramifications of the vessels are contractile, I » "Annelides Ch&opodes du Golfe de Naples," 1868, p. 65. THE POLYCELETA. 211 have observed crecal branches depending into the perivisceral cavity in which the contained fluid underwent merely an alter- nate flux and reflux. Ramified caeca of a similar kind appear to exist in the oligochaetous genera, Euaxes and X/umbriculus. The principal trunks give off a great number of branches, which ramify very minutely in some Annelids (Eunice) and may give rise to retia mirabilia (Nereis) ; but in many (e. g., Protula) there are hardly any branches and no minute capil- lary ramifications. In many Polychceta no segmental organs have yet been discovered, and in others they appear to be represented by mere openings in the parietes of the body. I have observed short ciliated canals opening externally upon the ventral sur- face at the bases of the parapodia in Phyllodoce viridis, and there are indications of the existence of similar organs in Syllis vittata. True segmental organs have, however, been found by Ehlers and Claparede in many Polychceta. In some cases their walls are thick and glandular, and they probably have a renal function. In addition, the}*- frequently play the part of oviducts and spermiducts. Whether the ciliated canal extending along the ventral surface of the intestine, which I have described in Protula, is a structure of the same order or not, I am not prepared to say. The nervous system of the Polychceta usually consists of a chain of ganglia — one pair for each somite — connected together by longitudinal and transverse commissural bands, which diverge between the cerebral ganglia and the succeed- ing pair, to allow of the passage of the oesophagus. The most important differences presented by the nervous systems of the Polychceta result from the varying length of the transverse commissures. In Vermilia, Serpula, Sabella, these commis- sures are very long, so that two distinct and distant series of ganglia appear to run through the body, while, in Nepthys, the two series of ganglia are fused into a single cord enlarged at intervals. Every transitional condition between these is observable in Terebella, Aonia, Glycera, Phyllodoce, and Aphrodite. In most Polychceta a very extensive series of visceral nerves supplies the alimentary canal. The recognizable organs of sense in the Annelida are eyes and auditory vesicles. The former are usually very simple, consisting of an expansion of the extremitv of the optic nerve, imbedded in pigment, and provided occasionally, but not in- in variably, with transpnrent spheroids or cones. Alcinpe and Torrea have very well-developed and large eyes. The eyes 212 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. are usually confined to the anterior extremity of the body, and to the praestomium where it exists ; but, in the remarkable genus Polyophthalmus, De Qua tref ages discovered, besides — c Fig. 55.— J., anterior end of the nervous system of Polynoe squama to (after De Qua- trefages) : a, cerebral sanglia ; b, oesophageal commissures; c, longitudinal com- missures of the ventral ganglia. B, anterior end of the nervous system of Sabella fiabellata (after De Quatrefages) : a, cerebral ganglia ; b, oesophageal commissures ; c, longitudinal commissures of the ventral gaDglia. Those of opposite sides are united by long transverse commis- sures. the ordinary cephalic ej'es, a double series of additional visual organs, one pair being allotted to each somite. In JBran- chiomma, eyes are situated at the ends of the branchial plumes. Ehrenberg has described two caudal eyes in Amphi- cora, and De Quatrefages has shown that similarly placed eyes exist in three other species of Polychceta, two of which are closely allied to Amphicora, while the other is an errant form, related to Lumbrinereis. These curious worms are said to swim about with the caudal extremity forward. Auditory sacs, containing many otoliths, have been ob- served upon each side of the oesophageal ring in Arenieola, and similar organs have been noticed in other TuMcola ; but hitherto their existence has not been certainly determined in the Errantia. The genitalia of the polychaetous Annelida are excessively simple in their structure ; indeed, special reproductive organs can hardly be said to exist in most, the generative products THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLYCH.ETA. 213 being merely developed from some part of the walls of the perivisceral cavity, in which they eventually freely float, mak- ing their way out in a manner which is not quite understood at present ; probably, however, through temporary or perma- nent apertures at the bases of the parapodia. In many, the segmental organs appear to serve as excretory ducts. As a rule, the polychsetous Annelids are dioecious ; but some (e. g., Protula, Fig. 54) are hermaphrodite. The ova undergo their development within the body of the parent in some species of Eunice y in pouches attached to the body in JExogone ; in masses of gelatinous matter which adhere to the tubes of the vermidom in Protala ; beneath the elytra in Polynbe cir- rata ; in the cavity of the opercular tentacle in some Spir- orbes ; while, in other* cases, they appear to become, almost immediately, free ciliated embryos. The vitellus undergoes division, and is converted, as in the case of the Oligochceta and Hirudinea, into blastomeres of two kinds. This contrast between the two components of the embryo commences with the division of the vitellus into two, inasmuch as the first fissure is usually so directed as to divide the yelk into unequal portions. Both subdivide, but the smaller much faster than the larger ; so that the former becomes converted into very small blastomeres, which grad- ually envelop the larger blastomeres resulting from the sub- division of the latter. The larger included blastomeres are destined to form the alimentary tract ; the smaller peripheral ones, on the other hand, give rise to the ectoderm, and to the nervous ganglia, 1 As in the Oligochceta and JPirudinea, again, the mesoblast forms a thick band on each side of the median ventral line, and its transverse division originates the segmentation of the body. But, generally, the development of the protosomites, as these segments might be called, does not occur until some time after the embryo has been hatched. The somites increase in number by the addition of new ones between the last and the penultimate somite. The embryos of the Polychceta differ from those of the Oli- gochceta and Hiradinea in being ciliated. In some cases, the cilia form a broad zone which encircles the body, leaving at each end an area, which is either devoid of cilia, or, as is fre- quently the case, has a tuft of long cilia at the cephalic end. Such larvas are termed Atrocha. In other embryos the cilia are arranged in one or more 1 Claparede and metscknikoflf. " Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Entwickelungs- gesckickte der Chaetopoden," 1863. 214 THE ANATOMY OF IXYERTEBRATED AXIMALS. narrow bands, which surround the body. A very common arrangement is one in which a band of cilia encircles the body immediately in front of the mouth, the region in front of the band bearing eyes, and becoming the praestomium of the adult (e. g., Polynoe). In such embryos, there is very commonly a second band of cilia around the anal end of the embryo, and a tuft of cilia is attached to the centre of the praestomium. These larvae are called Telotrocha. In other cases, one or many bands of cilia surround the middle of the body, between the mouth and the hinder extremity. These are Mesotrocha. In the telotrochous larva of Phyllodoce, a shield-shaped, mantle-like elevation of the integument covers the dorsal region of the body behind the prae-oral ciliated ring-. In the larvae of the Serpulidce a process of 'the integument grows out behind the mouth, and surrounds the anterior part of the body of the larva like a turned-back collar. It persists, as a kind of hood, in the adult. Some larvae are provided with setae of a different charac- ter from those which are possessed by the adult, and which are cast off as development advances. Many Polychceta multiply by a process of zooid develop- ment, which, in some cases, appears to be a combination of fission with gemmation ; in others, to approach very nearly to pure fission or pure gemmation. The result is, not infre- quently, the formation of long chains of connected zooids. The method of multiplication which De Quatrefages ob- served in Syllis prolifera, is nearly simple fission, the animal dividing near its middle, and the posterior division acquiring a new head. In Myrianida, Milne-Edwards has described the occur- rence of a sort of continuous budding between the ultimate and penultimate segments, in which region new segments are formed until the zooid has attained its full length. Frey and Leuckart and Krohn have shown that Autolytus prolifer multiplies in a somewhat similar manner ; but, in- stead of each new zooid being formed at the expense of an entire somite, it is developed from only a portion of one. Finally, I found in Protula Dysteri that, "when the Protula had attained a certain length, all the somites behind the six- teenth became eventually separated as a new zooid ; but the development of the latter is not mere fission, inasmuch as one of the earliest steps in the process is the enlargement of the seventeenth somite, and its conversion into the head and AGAMOGEXESIS AMONG POLYC1LETA. 215 thorax of the bud (Fig. 54, B). Sars has described a similar mode of multiplication in his Filograna implexa, a very close- ly allied form. In Syllls and in Protula, the producing and the produced zooids alike develop generative products, but, in Autolytus, Krohn has shown that the primary producing zcoid remains sexless, the secondary produced zouids having a somewhat different form, and alone giving rise to ova and spermatozoa. In some species of the genus Nereis, the worm, after the development of its genital organs has taken place, takes on the characters of what was formerly considered a distinct genus, Heteronereis ; and the males and the females of the same species of Nereis have even been regarded as different species of Heteronereis. 1 The series of forms represented by the Turbellaria, the Hirudinea, the Oligoehceta, and the Polychceta, illustrates the manner in which a type of organization, which, in its simplest condition, exhibits but little advance upon a mere Gastrula, passes into one in which the body is divided into many segments, each provided with a pair of appendages or rudimentary limbs. . The segmentation, or serial repetition of homologous somites, extends to the nervous system, and, more or less, to the vascular and reproductive organs, in the higher forms of these " Annulose ' animals ; from which a further extension of the same process of segmentation, with a fuller develop- ment of the appendages and a more complete appropriation of some of them to manducatory purposes, leads us to the Arthropoda. The Gephyrea. — These are marine vermiform animals without distinct external segmentation or parapodial append- ages. The ectoderm has a chitinous cuticle, and is often provided with tubercles, hooks, or seta?, of chitin (Fchiurus, Sternaspis). No calcareous skeleton is found in any of the Gephyrea. The integument frequently contains numerous simple glands, the apertures of which perforate the cuticle. In one genus {Sternaspis), tw T o shield-shaped plates, fringed with seta?, are developed upon the hinder part of the ventral surface of the hpdv. There are external circular and internal longitudinal muscular fibres beneath the ectoderm. An inner i Ehlers, " Die Gattung Heteronereis. ," (" Gottingen Nachrichten," 1867.) 10 216 THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. layer of circularly disposed muscular fibres may be added. The oral end of the body may have the form of a retractile proboscis (Priapulus), or be provided with tentacular append- ages. These may be arranged in a circle round the mouth, and short (Sipunculus, Fig. 56, I., T), or long (Phoronis), or there may be a single long, sometimes bifurcated and ciliated, tentacular appendage (Ponellia). Filamentous appendages, which are probably branchiae, are given otf at the hinder end of the body in Stemaspis and Priapulus. The endoderm is usually ciliated throughout. The intestine is straight in most genera, but is coiled and bent upon itself, so as to terminate in the middle of the body, in Sipunculus (Fig. 56, I.). In Phoronis the anus is close to the mouth. The anal aperture is always situated upon the dorsal aspect of the body. There is a spacious perivisceral cavity, undivided by mesenteries, which in some cases {Priapulus, Sipuncuhts) opens externally by a terminal pore. In Echiurus, Bonellia, Thalassema, a pair of tubular, sometimes branched organs, which are ciliated internally, and communicate by ciliated apertures with the perivisceral cavity, open into the rectum. These appear to represent the water-vessels of the Potifera and the respira- tor v tubes of the Holothurice. A pseud-haemal system exists in most (/Sipunculus, Stemas- pis, Bonellia, Ejhiurus, and Phoronis), and, when fully devel- oped, consists of two longitudinal trunks — one dorsal, or su- pra-intestinal, the other ventral, with their terminal and lateral communications. The pseud-haemal fluid is colorless, or may have a pale reddish tinge, in most. In Phoronis it is said to contain red corpuscles. In Sipunculus, the cavities of the tentacles communicate with a circular vessel provided with caecal appendages ; and this circular vessel is said to open into the pseud-haemal vessels. The nervous system presents a collar, which surrounds the oesophagus, and from which a simple or ganglionated cord proceeds backward in the ventral median line, giving off lat- eral branches. The ventral cord contains a central canal, and the collar usually presents a cerebral ganglionic enlargement. Rudimentary eyes are sometimes connected with the cerebral ganglion. The sexes are distinct, and the reproductive elements are developed either from the parietes of the perivisceral cavity or in simple caecal glands. In Sipunculus, tne ova and sper- matozoa float freely in the perivisceral cavity. The actively locomotive embryo of Sipunculus (Fig. 56, II.) THE GEPHYREA. 217 is surrounded by a circular band of cilia placed immediately behind the mouth ( TV, IV), and resembles a Rotifer or a meso- trochal Annelidan larva. As development advances it loses Fig. 56.—Sipvncuhifi nudus (after Keferstein and Elders'). 1 I. The animal laid open longitudinally — |n.s. T, tentacles: r, the four retractor muscles of the proboscis; r, the points at which they were attached to the walls of the body ; ee, oesophagus ; *. intestine; a, anus ; J, J\ loops of the intestine ; », y, appendages of the rectum ; s, fusiform muscle ; w, ciliated groove on the inner side of the intestine ; g, anal muscles ; s, caecal glands ; t. caeca which open on each side of the nervous cord, and are generally considered to be testes ; p, pore at the hinder end of the body; w, nervous cord, which ends in a lobed gan- glionic mass, close to the mouth, and presents an enlargement, g\ at its poste- rior end ; m, m\ m", muscles associated with the nervous cords. II. A larval Sipunculus about T \ of an inch long: o, mouth; «, srullet ; *, csecal eland ; i, intestine with masses of fatty cells ; a, anus ; w. ciliated groove of the intestine ; g, brain with two pairs of red eye-spots ; n, nervous cord, p, pore; t, ?, so-called testes ; W, W, circlet of cilia. this apparatus, and passes gradually into the adult form. In Phoronis, the embryo is also mesotrochal, but it has two ciliated bands, one circular, round the anus, and the other im- mediately behind the mouth. The post-oral band of cilia is produced into numerous tentaculiform lobes, and fringes the free edge of a broad concave lobe of the dorsal side of the body, which arches over the mouth. In this state the embryo 1 " Zoologische Beitrage," 1861. 218 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. is the so-called Actinotrocha? An invagination of the ven- tral integument of the larva connects itself with the middle of the intestine, and then, becoming evaginated, pulls the in- testine, in the form of a loop, into the ventral process thus formed, which gives rise to the body of the Phoronis, while the tentacles of the larva grow into those of the adult. Schneider has suggested that the bell-shaped larva, with long seta?, termed Mitraria by Mailer, is the embryo of /SternasjriSo The affinities of the Gephyrea with the Turbellaria, with the Annelida, and with the Potifera, are unmistakable. In fact, it may be doubted whether Sternaspis should not be associated with the Polycficeta, and Ponellia is in man} 7 re- spects comparable to a colossal Rotifer. Their usually as- sumed connection with the Echinodermata is more question- able. The circular canal which communicates with the cavi- ties of the tentacles in Sipunculus has been compared to the ambulacral system of the Echinoderms, but the manner of its development is not yet sufficiently understood to justify the expression of an opinion on this subject. Krohn has de- scribed a bilobed organ on the ventral face of the gullet of the larva of Sipunculus, which opens externally in front of the ciliated band by a narrow ciliated duct 2 (Fig. 56, II., S). It has a striking similarity to the " water-vessel " of the larva of Palanoglossus, which, however, lies on the opposite side of the body. 1 " Schneider, "Ueber die Metamorphose der Actinotrocha IrancMata." (" Archiv fur Anatomie," 1862.) 2 " Ueber die Larve des Sipunculus nudits." (" Archiv fur Anatomie," 1851.) CHAPTER VI. THE ARTHROPOD A. The segmentation of the body, that is, its division into a series of somites, each provided with a pair of lateral ap- pendages, which is so characteristic a feature of the higher Annelids, is exhibited in a still more marked degree by the Arthropoda. In these animals, moreover, the appendages, themselves are usually divided into segments, while one or more pairs of the appendages in the neighborhood of the mouth are modified in form and position to subserve man- ducation. Segmental organs, at least in their Annelidan form, are wanting in the Arthropoda, and neither in the em- bryonic nor the adult condition do they ever possess cilia. The process of yelk-division may be complete or incom- plete, but no known Arthropod ovum gives rise to a vesicular morula, nor is the alimentary cavity ordinarily formed by in- vagination. 1 The precise mode of origin of the mesoblast has yet to be worked out, but the perivisceral cavity appears always to be developed by its splitting. In other words, it is a schizocoele. As with Annelids, the segmentation of the body results from the subdivision of the mesoblast by transverse constric- tions into protosomites ; and there is every reason to believe that the ganglionated nervous chain arises from an involution of the epiblast. The neural face of the embryo is fashioned first, and its anterior end terminates in two rounded expansions — the pro- cephalic lobes — which are converted into the sides and front of the head. The appendages are developed as paired out- 1 The recent observations of Bobretzky on the development of Oniscus and Astacus (Hofmann and Schwalbe, u Jahresberichte," Bd. ii., 1875), however, tend to show that the hypoblast arises by a sort of modified invagination of the primitive blastoderm. And in other Arthropoda there are indications of a similar process. 220 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. growths from the neural aspect of each somite, and, whatever their ultimate form, they are, at first, simple bud-like pro- cesses. Very generally, a broad median prolongation of the sternum of the somite which lies in front of the mouth gives rise to a labrion y while a corresponding, but often bifid me- dian elevation, behind the mouth, becomes a metastoma. In many Arthropods, the haemal or tergal face of the body grows out into lateral processes, w 7 hich may either be fixed, or more or less movable. The lateral prolongations of the carapace in the Crustacea and the wings of Insecta are structures of this order. In a number of Insects belonging to different orders of the class, an amnionic investment is developed from the extra-neural part of the blastoderm by a method similar to that which gives rise to the amnion in the higher Vertebrata. In all the higher Arthropods, a certain number of the somites which constitute the anterior end of the body coa- lesce and form a head, distinct from the rest of the body ; and the appendages belonging to these confluent somites un- dergo remarkable modifications, whereby they are converted into organs of the higher senses and into jaws. In many cases, the somites of the middle and posterior parts of the body become similarly differentiated into groups of poly- somitic segments, which then receive the name of thorax and abdomen. The somites entering into each of these groups may remain distinct or may coalesce. The tergal expansions of the somites of the head, or of both head and thorax, may take the shape of a broad shield, or carapace. This may con- stitute a continuous whole (e. g., Apus, Astacus) ; or its two halves may be movably connected by a median hinge, like a bivalve shell ( Cypris, Limnadia) ; or, finally, the tergal pro- cesses of each side may remain distinct from one another and freely movable on their respective somites (wings of In- sects). Limbs, or appendages capable of effecting locomotion, are always attached either to the head or to the thorax, 1 or to both. They may be present or absent in the abdominal re- gion. In adult Arachnida and Insecta, there are no abdomi- nal limbs, unless the accessory organs of generation, the stings of some insects, and the peculiar appendages of the abdomen in the Thysanura and Collembola, be such. The alimentary apparatus presents very wide diversities 1 The extinct Trilobites possibly form an exception to this rule- THE ARTHROPODA. 221 in form and structure, and in the number and nature of its glands. The anus, which is very rarely absent, is situated in the hindermost somite. In like manner, the blood-vascular system varies from a mere perivisceral cavity without any heart ( Ostracoda, Cirri- pedia) up to a complete, usually many-chambered heart w T ith well-developed arterial vessels. The venous channels, how- ever, always have the nature of more or less definite lacunae. The blood-corpuscles are colorless, nucleated cells. Special respiratory organs may be absent, or they may take one of the following* forms : 1. Branchiae. Externally projecting processes of the body or limbs, supplied with venous blood, which is thus brought into contact with the air dissolved in water. 2. Trachea?. Tubes which traverse the body and gen- erally open upon its exterior by apertures termed stigmata, and thus bring air into contact with the blood and the tissues generally. Saccular reservoirs of air are often formed by dilatations of these tubes. The so-called Tracheo-branchiae of some aquatic Insect larvae are usually laterally projecting processes of more or fewer of the thoracic or abdominal somites, containing abun- dant tracheae, w T hich communicate with those which traverse the body {Ephemeridae, Perlaridae). They are in no sense branchiae, but simply take the place cf stigmata. The ex- change of constituents between the air contained in the tracheae of these animals and that of the surrounding* medium is effected indirectly, by diffusion through the walls of the tracheo-branchiae, instead of directly, through the stigmata, as in other cases. In the aquatic larvae of many Dragon-flies (Libelhdida), the function of the tracheo-branchiae is performed by folds of the lining* membrane of the rectum, which contain abundant tracheae. Water is drawn into, and expelled from, the cavity of the rectum by rhythmical contractions of its walls, so as to secure the exchange of gaseous constituents between the air which it contains and that which fills the tracheae. 3. Pulmonary sacs. These are met with only in some Arachnida. They are involutions of the integument, the walls of w T hich are folded in such a manner as to expose a large surface to the air, which is alternately taken into, and expelled from, their apertures. The blood is brought to these sacs by venous channels. The exact mode by which the separation of the nitro- 222 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. genous products of the waste of the tissues from the blood is effected in Arthropods requires further elucidation. In many, however, such products, notably uric acid, have been found to abound in the corpus adiposum — a cellular mass which lies in the walls of, and more or less fills, the peri- visceral cavity — and in the Malpighian glands. In the latter case, they are conveyed out of the body by the intestine. The nervous system consists primitively of a pair of gan- glia for each somite, but the number of ganglia discoverable in the adult depends on the extent to which these primitive ganglia coalesce. There is usually, if not always, a well- developed system of ganglionated visceral nerves, connected with the cerebral ganglia and distributed to the gullet and stomach. Eyes are usually present ; and, when they exist, they are almost always situated in the head and are connected with the cerebral ganglia. Among the Crustacea, however, tti- phausia has eyes in some of the thoracic limbs, and in some abdominal somites. The eyes may be simple or compound. In the latter case there are, in correspondence with the num- ber of parts into which the transparent corneal continuation of the chitinous cuticula over the eye is divided, a number of elongated bodies which lie between the outer surface of the ganglionic expansion of the optic nerve and the inner face of the cornea. These bodies consist of two parts: an external transparent crystalline cone and an internal pris- matic rod. The broad end of the cone is external, and is ap- plied to the inner surface of the corneal facet; its narrow end is continuous with the outer extremity of the prismatic rod, which, by its inner end, is connected with the ultimate ramifications of the optic nerve. Each of these crystalline cones and prismatic rods is separated from the rest by a pig- mented sheath. 1 Distinct auditory organs have been observed in Crus- taceans and Insects. They are not exclusively confined to the head. In the opossum shrimp (My sis), for example, they are placed in the appendages of the last somite of the ab- domen. And, in Insects, the only organs to which the audi- tory function can be certainly assigned are situated in the thorax or in the legs. 1 Leydig, " Das Auge der Gliederthiere,' 1 1864. Schulze, " Untersuch- ungen," 1868. Mr. E. T. Newton has given a very good account of the struct- ure of the eye of the lobster, accompanied by full references to the literature of the subject, in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Seience for 1875. THE ARTHROPODA. 223 There is some reason to think that the antennas of Insects are the seat of the olfactory function, but no certain infor- mation of this head has been obtained. The very fine setae to the bases of which nerves can be traced, which abound on the antennary organs of Insecta and Crustacea, but are found in other regions of the body, are probably partly tactile and partly auditory organs. As a general rule, all the muscles of the Arthropoda, even those of the alimentary canal, are striated. Those of the body and limbs are often attached by chitinized tendons to the parts which they have to move. As the hard skeleton is hollow and the muscles are inside it, it follows that the bod3 7 , or a limb, is bent toward that side of its axis which is oppo- site to that on which a contracting muscle is situated. Sounds are produced by many Insects ; but in most cases they cannot be properly referred to a voice, in the sense in which that term is applied to the sounds produced in the higher animals, by the vibrations of the atmosphere arising from the impact of a current of air upon the free edges of membranes bounding the aperture of exit of the current. The chirping and humming of Insects often arise from the friction of their hard parts against one another, or from the rapid vibration of their wings : in some instances, however, recent investigations render it probable that they are pro- duced by the action of expiratory currents on tense mem- branes which bound the stigmata. Agamogenesis is very common among some groups of the Arthropoda, such as the Crustacea and the Insecta, but has not yet been observed in the Myriapoda or the Arachnida. It may be effected in one of two ways : 1. Either individuals which are, by their structure, inca- pable of being impregnated and are therefore physiologically sexless, though it may happen that they more or less approxi- mate females morphologically, give rise to offspring ( Cecido- myia larva?, Aphis) ; 2. Or individuals which are capable of being impregnated, and are thus both morphologically and physiologically true females, give rise to eggs which develop without impreg- nation. (The queen-bee, so far as the production of drones is concerned ; many Lepidopterct). The cases of Apus, Daphnia, and Cypris, would belong to the latter category, if it were certain tliat the very same females which, for a certain period, produce young agamo 15 224 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. genetically, at another time undergo fecundation. Multipli- cation by fission or external gemmation is not known to take place in any Arthropod. Hermaphrodism occurs as a rule in some few Arthropods (e. g., the Cirripedia and Tardigrada), and as an abnormal "sport" in sundry Crustacea and in manv Insecta. In absolute number of species, the Arthropoda far ex- ceed all the rest of the animal kingdom put together. Thus Gerstaecker, 1 while allowing 50,000 species for the latter, estimates the number of species of Arthropoda as rather above than below 200,000 ; by far the larger proportion of these, probably more than 150,000, being Insects. The Arthropoda are commonly divided into the Crustacea, the Arachnida, the Myriapoda, and the Insecta ; and though it is impracticable to give a definition which shall absolutely separate the first two groups, it is perhaps not worth while to disturb an arrangement which has much practical con- venience. But, for purely morphological purposes, it may be instructive to regard them from another point of view. The Arthropoda may, in fact, be divided into two series. One of these consists almost wholly of air-breathing forms, which, if they possess special respiratory organs, have either pulmonary sacs or tracheae, or both combined ; while the other includes a corresponding predominance of water-breath- ing animals, w^hich, if they possess respiratory organs, have branchiae. The latter series contains the Crustacea ; the former comprises the Arachnida, Myriapoda, and Insecta. In the course of the development of the higher Arthro- poda, there is a stage in which the body begins to be seg- mented, but the appendages are not developed. This is followed by a stage in which appendages make their appear- ance, but the antennary and manducatory appendages (gna- thites) are like the other limbs : and, finally, there is a stage in which the gnathites are completely converted into jaws. Now, among the water-breathing Arthropoda, no trace of limbs has yet been certainly discovered among the Trilo- bita ; in the Merostomata {Eurypterida and Xiphosura) the gnathites are completely pediform ; while, in the Ento- mostraca and Malacostraca, more or fewer of the gnathites are so modified as to subserve manducation and no other function. 1 Bronn's "Kiassen und Ordnungen des Thierreiclis," vol. v., p. 273. 1868. THE GROUPS OF THE ARTHROPODA. 225 In the air-breathing series no completely apodal forms are known. The Tardigrada and the Pentastornida appear to have no jaws ; but the presence of oral stilets in the former, and the position of the hooks which represent the limbs in the latter, throw some doubt upon this point. In the Arachnida and the Peripatidea the gnathites are completely pediform. But in the Myriapoda, and still more in the Insecta, the gnathites lose the character of legs, and are completely converted into manducatory organs. Thus we arrive at the following arrangement of the Arthropoda : Abtheopoda. I. Without Gnathites. Teilobita. Taedigeada (?) Pextastomida (?) 77. With Pediform Gnathites. Meeosto'viata. Aeachnida. Peeipatidea. III. With Maxilliform Gnathites. ExTOMOSTEACA. MtEIAPODA. Malacosteaca. Insecta. "Water-breathers. Air-breathers. For the most part. Of the four great groups, the Crustacea are those which present the greatest and the most instructive variations upon the fundamental type of structure ; while the modifications of the Insecta, Arachnida, and Myriapoda, are less exten- sive, and may be regarded as of secondary morphological im- portance. The Crustacea will, therefore, be treated of at some length, while the other groups will be passed over more lightly. THE CRUSTACEA. The Trilobita. — These ancient Arthropods, which have been extinct since the latter part of the Palaeozoic epoch, oc- cur in the fossil state in great numbers, and in conditions very favorable for their preservation ; but, up to this time, no certain indications of the existence of appendages, nor even of any hard, sternal body-wall, have been discovered, though 226 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. a shield-shaped labrum, which lies in front of the mouth, has been preserved in some specimens. The body consists of a cephalic shield (Fig. 57, A) ; of a variable number of mov- ably-articulated thoracic somites (Fig. 57, B) ; and of a, py- gidium, composed of a variable number of the somites which succeed the thorax, united together (Fig. 57, C). Each thoracic somite presents a median portion, convex from side to side, termed the axis or tergum, and two flat- tened lateral portions, the pleura. The former overlap one another largely when the body is extended, the latter when it is flexed, and the freedom of motion permitted by this ar- rangement is so great that many Trilobites were able to roll themselves up like wood-lice, and are found fossilized in that condition. At the lateral edge of each pleuron, the cuticular substance of which it is composed folds inward, and can be traced on the ventral or sternal side for some distance. But in the middle of the ventral region no indication of a sternum is discoverable. It may, therefore, be concluded that the sternal region of the somite was of a soft and perishable na- ture ; and that the thoracic somite of a Trilobite resembled one of the abdominal somites of a crab in this and in some other respects. The glabellum (Fig. 57, 4), or central raised ridge of the cephalic shield, is a continuation of the thoracic axis, the lo- cation of its sides perhaps referring to the number of primi- tive somites it represents. The limb, or lateral area on either side, answers to a thoracic pleuron / its thickened margin (Fig. 57, 1) is produced into two longer or shorter posterior angles (g) ; interiorly, the marginal band is reflected inward for a short distance, as the subfrontal fold, the remaining sternal area being incomplete. A median movable plate answers to the labrum of Apus and Limulus. On the occip- ital or lateral margin of the limb a suture (Fig. 57, 5) com- mences, and, passing between the eye and the glabellum, meets that of the opposite side either in front of the latter, or on the margin of the limb, or on the subfrontal fold, and is connected with the labral suture by one or two sutures. The limb is thus divided into two parts — one fixed (the fixed gena, Fig. 57, a), attached to the glabellum ; the other sep- arable (the movable gena, Fig. 57, b), on which the eye is placed. The eyes are absent in some genera. In others they occur as isolated ocelli ; or in groups, their interspaces being occupied by the common integument; or they may resemble the compound eyes of other Arthropods. THE TRILOBITA. 227 M. Barrande ! has succeeded in tracing out the develop- ment of some species of Trilobites. He finds that the small- Fig. 57.— Diagram of DaJmanites (alter Pictet). — A, head ; 1, marginal band ; 2, mar- ginal groove, internal to the band ; 3, occipital segment ; 4, glabellum ; 5, great suture ; 6. eyes ; a, fixed gena ; b, separable gena ; g, genal angle ; 2?, thorax ; 7, axis ortergum ; 8, pleuron ; C, pygidium ; 9, tergal ; 10, pleural portions of the pygidium. est, and therefore the youngest, forms are discoidal bodies, without any clear evidence of segmentation. The division into somites takes place by degrees, the number increasing up to the adult condition. It is possible that still younger conditions may have escaped fossilization, but the analogy of Limuliis suggests that these small discoidal forms really represent the condition in which the Trilobite left the egg. The aIerostomata. 2 — The only existing representative of this division of the Crustacea is the genus Limulus (the King Crabs or Horseshoe Crabs), the various species of which are 1 " Systerne Silurien du centre de Boheme." tome i. Trilobites. 1852. 3 H. Woodward, " A Monograph of the British Fossil Crustacea belonging to the Order Merostomata," 1866. 228 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. found in America and in the Moluccas. They are usually classed as a distinct order of the Crustacea, termed Xipho- sura or Pcecilopoda. The body of Limulus (Fig. 58) is naturally divided into three parts, which are movably articulated together. The most anterior is a shield-shaped portion, curiously similar in form to the head of a Trilobite. Its convex dorsal surface is similarly divided into a median and two lateral regions ; its edges are thickened, and its posterior and external angles are produced backward. At the anterior end of the median re- gion two simple eyes are situated, and at its sides are two large compound eyes. The sternal surface presents, ante- riorly, a flattened subfrontal area, behind which it is deeply excavated, so that the labrum and the appendages are hidden in a deep cavity formed by its shelving walls. The middle division of the body of Limulus exhibits markings which in- dicate that it is composed of, at fewest, six coalesced somites; its margins are spinose, and its excavated sternal face lodges the appendages of this region. Fig. 58.— A, Limulus moluccanus (dorsal view). B, L. rotundicauda (ventral view) (after Milne-Edwards): a. anterior; 6, middle division of the body ; c, telson , d; subfrontal area; e, antennules ; f, antennae ; g, operculum ; h, branch iferous ap- pendages. The terminal division is a long, pointed, and laterally ser- rated spine, which is termed the telson. THE MEROSTOMATA. 229 The mouth is placed in the centre of the sternal surface of the anterior division ; the anus opens on the same surface, at the junction between the middle division and the telson. A movable, escutcheon-shaped labrum projects backward in the middle line, immediately behind the subfrontal area (d) ; and on each side of it is a three-jointed appendage, the second joint of which is prolonged in such a manner as to form with the third a pincer or chela. The attachment of this appendage is completely in front of the labrum, which separates it from the mouth. In each of the next live pairs of appendages, the basal joint is enlarged ; and, in the anterior four, its inner edge is beset with numerous movable spines. The attachment of the basal joint of the foremost of these appendages (the second of the whole series) is in front of the mouth ; but its pro- longed, spinose, posterior and internal angle may be made to project a little into the oral cavity. The basal joints of the following three appendages are articulated at the sides of the mouth, and the inner angle of each is provided with a spinose process which projects into the oral cavity. The second, third, fourth, and fifth appendages in the females are chelate ; in the males of most species the second, and sometimes the third, are not chelate. The large basal joint of the sixth ap- pendage is almost devoid of spines, and bears a curved, spat- ulate process, which is directed backward between the ante- rior and middle divisions of the body. The fifth joint of this limb carries four oval lamellae. The appendages which form the seventh pair, very unlike the rest, are short, stout, and single-jointed. The eighth pair of appendages, again, are of a totally dif- ferent character from those which precede them. They are united in the middle line into a single broad plate, which forms a sort of cover, or operculum, over the succeeding ap- pendages, when the animal is viewed from the sternal side. On the dorsal face of this plate are seated the two apertures of the reproductive organs. From the inner face of the anterior, or sternal, wall of each half of the operculum a strong process arises, and passes upward to be attached to a corresponding process of the ter- gal wall of the anterior division of the body. By far the greater part of the large levator muscle of the appendage arises from the tergal wall of the anterior division cf the body, and the nerve which supplies the limb is derived direct- ly from the posterior part of the multiganglionate cord which 230 THE ANATOMY OF LNYERTEBRATED ANIMALS. surrounds the gullet and supplies the appendages which lie in front of the operculum. The five pairs of appendages which remain resemble the operculum in their general form, and have ascending process- es, which are connected with inward prolongations of the ter- gal wall of the middle division of the body. Their nerves are derived from the ganglia which lie in this region of the body. Thus there are altogether thirteen pairs of appendages, eight of which are connected with the anterior, and five with the middle division of the body ; and the appendages in the region of the mouth are essentially ordinary limbs, the basal joints of some of which are so modified as to subserve man- ducation. The determination of the homologies of the parts hither- to spoken of as the anterior and middle divisions of the body, and of their appendages, is a matter of some difficulty ; but, on comparing the disposition of the limbs and their nervous supply with what obtains in the higher Crustacea, it seems hardly doubtful that the first pair of appendages answer, to the antennules ; the second, to the antennae ; the third, to the mandibles ; the fourth and fifth, to the maxilla? ; and the sixth, seventh, and eighth, to the maxillipedes of Astacus or JTomarus ; and, in this case, the anterior division is a ceph- alo-thorax. If the position of the genital openings marks the hinder boundary of the thorax, the middle division of the body represents an abdomen, composed cf five somites. But, on the other hand, it may be that the genital organs open in front of the hinder extremity of the thorax, as in female Pod ophthalmia, and that the five somites which form the middle division correspond with the remaining five somites of the thorax of a Podophtbalmian. In this case, the region which corresponds with the abdomen in the higher crusta- ceans is undeveloped. The alimentary canal of Limidus is very peculiarly ar- ranged. The gullet passes directly forward and upward, and gradually widens into the stomach, the walls of which are provided with many longitudinal folds. The pylorus is prolonged into a narrow tube which projects into the intes- tine. The two biliary ducts on each side are far apart, and branch out into minute tubules, which form a mass occupying the greater part of the cavity of the body. The rectum, a slender canal with plaited walls, and very short, opens into a sort of cloaca situated between the telson and the sternal wall of the abdomen. THE MEROSTOMATA. 231 The heart, in Limulus polyphemus, is an elongated mus- cular tube, divided into eight chambers, and having as many pairs of lateral valvular apertures. It lies in a large peri- cardial sinus, which, in its abdominal portion, presents on each side five apertures, the terminations of the branchial veins. The branchiae consist of numerous delicate semicir- cular lamella?, attached transversely to the posterior faces of the five post-opercular appendages, and superimposed upon one another like the leaves of a book. The nervous system appears, at first sight, to be very con- centrated, its principal substance being disposed in a ring, embracing the oesophagus ; but, on closer inspection, it is found to consist of an anterior mass, representing the prin- cipal part of the cerebral ganglia in most other Crustacea, and of two ganglionic cords which proceed from the outer and posterior angles of that mass, and extend as far as the interval between the last and penultimate pairs of append- ages. These cords are thick, and lie on each side of the oesophagus, around which they converge, so as to come into close union and almost confluence, immediately behind it. In front of this point, how T ever, they are connected by three or four transverse commissures, which curve round the poste- rior wall of the oesophagus, and become gradually shorter from before backward. The first of these commissures unites the two cords oppo- site the origin of the nerves to the third pair of appendages, which I regard as the homologues of the mandibles. In front of this point, the cerebral ganglia give off, from their ante- rior edges, the nerves to the ocelli, eyes, and frontal region ; and, from their posterior and under surfaces, those to the an- tennules. The nerves to the antenna? arise from the cord close to the outer and posterior angles of the cerebral gan- glia, and some distance in front of those to the mandibles. Close behind the latter arise the large nerves to the fifth and sixth cephalo-thoracic appendages. The nerves to the rudimentary seventh pair of append- ages are slender, and arise rather from the under part of the post-cesophageal ganglia ; those which supply the eighth pair of appendages, constituting the operculum, are also slender, and seem to come off from the two longitudinal com- missural cords, which connect the post-cesophageal ganglia with those which are situated in the second division of the body, though they are, in truth, only united in one sheath with them for a short distance, and can be readily traced to 232 THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. the post-oesophageal ganglia, internal to the nerves of the seventh pair of appendages. The longitudinal commissures are very long, and are inclosed in a continuation of the same sheath ; they pass back into the second division of the body, and there present four ganglionic enlargements, whence the nerves of the post-opercular appendages proceed. The last of these ganglia is much larger than the others, and appears to consist of several confluent masses. The nerves diverge from it in such a manner as to resemble a cauda equina. The reproductive organs of both sexes consist of a mass of glandular caeca, which ramify through the body amid the hepatic tubules, and eventually open on papillae situated on the posterior face of the operculum. The males are much smaller than the females, and present, in many species, an external sexual distinction in the peculiarity of their second and third appendages already referred to. The young of Limulus acquires all its characteristic features while still within the egg. The interesting obser- vations of A. Dohrn 1 have shown that, in an early stage, the embryo is provided with the nine anterior pairs of append- ages, and is marked out into fourteen somites by transverse grooves upon its sternal face. The body has the form of a thick rounded disk, divided into an anterior shield composed of six somites, and a posterior, likewise shield-shaped region, formed by the union of eight somites. The telson has not made its appearance. In this condition, its resemblance, apart from the limbs, to such a Trilobite as Trmucleus is, as Dohrn points out, most remarkable. The JCiphosura were represented in the Carboniferous epoch (Bellinurus). The Eurypterida (Fig. 59) are extinct Crustacea of Pa- laeozoic (Silurian) age, which sometimes attain a very large size and in many respects resemble Limidus, while, in others, they present approximations to other Crustacea., especially the Copepoda. An anterior, eye-bearing, shield-shaped di- vision of the body is succeeded by a number (12 or more) of free somites, and the body is ended by a broad, or narrow and spine-like, telson. Five pairs, at most, of limbs, pro- 1 " Untersuchunffen fiber Bau und Entwickelung der Arthropoden." (Jena- isrhe Zeitsclirift, Bd. vi.) See also the observations of Loekwood and Packard, American NatwaWi. vol. iv., 1871, vol. vii., 1873, and " Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History," 1872 ; with the discussion of the systematic place of Limulus by E. Van Beneden, Journal de Zoologie, 1872. THE MERCSTOMATA. 233 vided with toothed basal joints, are attached to the sternal surface of the shield, and the mouth is covered, behind them by a large oval plate which appears to represent a meta- stoma (Fig. 59, B, g). Some of the anterior limbs are fre- quently chelate (Pterygotus) ; the terminal joints of the most Ct/L. Fig. 59.—Enriwterus remipes (after Nieszkowski). 1 — A. dorsal aspect. B, ventral aspect. Cth, the cephalo-thoracic shield bearing a, the eyes, and b, c, d, e,f, the locomotive limhs ; T 7 , telson ; g, the metastoma; h, the sternal plates of the an- terior free somites. posterior pair are generally expanded and paddle-like. The integument often presents a peculiar sculpture, simulating minute scales. The sternal surface of one or more of the anterior free somites is occupied by a broad plate, with a median lobe, and two laterally-expanded side-lobes (Fig. 59, 1 " Der Eurypterus remipes, aus den obersilurischen Schichten der Insel Oesel." 1859. 234 THE AXATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. B, A), having a remote resemblance to the operculum of Limulus. The Extomostraca. — All the remaining Crustacea have completely specialized jaws ; and as many as six pairs of appendages may be converted into gnathites. In the Entomostraca, if the body possesses an abdomen (reckoning as such the somites which lie behind the genital aperture), its somites are devoid of appendages. Moreover, the somites, counting that which bears the eyes as the first, are more or fewer than twenty. There are never more than three pairs of gnathites. The embryo almost always leaves the egg in the condition of a Nauplius / that is, an oval body, provided with two or three pairs of appendages, which become converted into antennary organs and gnathites in the adult. The division of the Entomostraca comprises the Copepoda, the Epizoa, the Branchlopoda, the Ostracoda, and the Pectostraca. The Copepoda. — In these E