Studies on Earthworms. - Journal of Cell Science

214 WILLIAM BLAXLAND BBNHAM.
I. HISTORICAL.
Amongst the earliest papers dealing with Earthworms anatomically
are those of Savigny (1) in 1820, and of Duges (2) in
] 828, who describe numerous species of Lumbricus, which will
be mentioned in Section II. Duges figures the prostomium of
some of these, and describes the genital organs; but his interpretation
of the latter is wrong, since he has, like so many
of the earlier writers, confused the seminal reservoirs and
the spermathecse, attributing each to the wrong sex. Other
authors followed him, who, whilst contradicting him, were no
nearer the truth. Von Siebold (3), for instance, suggested
that the ovary was invaginated into the seminal reservoirs.
Even till quite recently the " seminal reservoirs " were spoken
of as " testes." I may at once say that I shall use the former
name for the three pairs of large white organs in Lumbricus
which originate in somites x and xi and spread into the neighbouring
somites, and for their homologues in other genera.
The ovary was unknown till 1853, when d'Udekem (4)
described it in Lumbricus agricolaj whilst in 1856 Hering
(5) supplemented our knowledge of the genital organs by his
figure of the ovary and his description of its position on the
posterior face of the septum between somites xn and XIII. He
also showed that the oviduct was not in continuity with the
ovary, but that the ova fell into the body cavity, and were
conveyed thence to the exterior by the wide ciliated funnels of
the pair of short oviducts which pass through the posterior
septum of somite XIII to the exterior in xrv. Hering described
the process of copulation, and thought that the spermatozoa
passed from the sperm pore along a groove of the ventral surface
to the spermathecse; but Dr. Fraisse, in 1882 (6), describes
the spermatophores of various spcies of Lumbricus, and shows
that the spermatozoa do not pass directly into the spermathecse,
but are received in bodies secreted on somite xxvi. Previous
authors had described as " testes" the large white sacs which
are now known as " seminal reservoirs," but Hering, in this
paper, describes and figures the true testes. Professor A. G.