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Show 290 LIEUT.-COL. H. H. GODWIN-AUSTEN ON [Apr. 20, Before describing or making any remarks of my own on this particular organ, it will be as well to refer to the works of other naturalists who have made the anatomy of the Mollusca their especial studv, and then to compare and extend their valuable deductions to the Indian species now treated of. M . A. Moquin-Tandon1 (1851) and, later, M . P. Fischer have written on this organ of the Pulmoniferous Gastropods. In the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' vol. vii. (1857), M . Fischer refers in terms of admiration and praise to the labours of Lister, who so far back as 1694 described and figured under the name of "capreolus" a curious organ, slender, thread-like, which is to be found in the genital apparatus of H. pomatia (Exercit. Anat. p. 115, tab. ii. rigs. 4, 5, London). I will quote his own words :-"Nous donnons textueliement en note le assage de Lister relatif au capreolus; car il de'montre le zele et la sagacite qu'il apporta dans ses observations, alors que la zoologie compare'e etait encore a creer." Since Lister's time many naturalists have written on the subject, while some do not mention it at all when treating of the Land-Mollusca. Thus, Cuvier 2 says nothing of this organ in the fine monograph which he published on Helix pomatia ; and various uses have been assigned to it. Draparnaud took the capreolus for the dart in Helix vermiculata. Nitzsch (1826) notices it in H. arbustorum as not united to the genital organs, and had seen it come out a short way from the genital orifice; he did not attempt to explain its use, and called it the "corps enigmatique." Duverney, in H. aspersa, thought it condensed sperm. Van Beneden called it " un stylet" in Parmacella ; Blainville, " un corps styliforme " in Parmacella palliorum. Dutrochet noted the spermatophore of Arion rufus, but did not interpret its meaning well; but Siebold, according to Fischer, foresaw its use: he says that it is " a slender body, of peculiar form, which in Helix hortensis and H. arbustorum is seen sticking out near the genital cloaca after fecundation, and which, when drawn in, is rolled up in a spiral at both extremities "3. Moquin-Tandon describes two different type forms in Helix and Arion. It has also been noticed in Limax, Bulimus, Pel-tella ; and, summing up, we find : - 1. That nearly all naturalists are of opinion that it is only developed at the period of reproduction and lias only a temporary existence 4. 2. That it is a perfectly free body, not attached to the generative organs, and formed partly in the flagellum 5 and partly in the sheath of the penis. There is only one exception given: in Parmacella valenciennii: M. Van Beneden concluded that it was a true organ and always present. 1 ' Journal de Conchyliologie/ 23rd Dec. 1851, p. 333; and Comptes Rendus, vol. xii. p. 857, (1855). l 2 " Memoire sur la Limace et le LimaQon," Ann. Mus. vii. (1806), p. 140. 3 Baudelot, Ann. Sci. Nat. 1863, p. 136, gives a good history of the various papers on the subject of the generative apparatus of the Pulrnoiiifera. 4 P. Fisher Para, Annales des Sciences Nat. vii. (Zool.), p. 376 (1857). 6 Moquin-Tandon, Comptes Rendus, 1855, p. 857 |