OCR Text |
Show 528 MR. F. K. BEDDARD ON MYRMECOBIUS. [June 23, in another drawing (fig. 2), which represents only the glandular patch, magnified about 5 diameters. It will be seen that in this region the integument is naked or nearly so, and its surface is studded with numerous apertures of various sizes, some being very much larger than others. An incision through the middle line of the gland shows that the integument is considerably thickened in this region, forming a lens-shaped mass. Large glandular cavities are seen on a naked-eye inspection to be continuous with the external orifices, and to extend as far as the lower surface of the dermis. The material was not in a thoroughly good condition for microscopical research ; hut I have Fig. 2. Glandular patch of Myrmecobius fasciatus, more highly magnified than in Fig. 1. been able to make out some of the principal facts in the structure the integument. The glandular apparatus consists of four distinct series of glandular structures. (1) Sweat-glands, which present the ordinary characters of these glands, being contorted tubules, with a lining of cubical epithelium ; as a rule three tubules unite to form a single duct, which traverses the dermis and epidermis, and opens very often in the neighbourhood of a hair-follicle. These sweat-glands are isolated, usually in groups of three, and form a compact oval body imbedded in the muscular tissue of the dermis. Very often the duct of these glands opened, as already stated, directly upon the outer surface of the body; and in these cases the duct generally appeared to m e to be straight, or at least approximately so; I never detected the corkscrew-like outline |