The rectal gland of the spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, secretes a fluid which is essentially a sodium chloride solution with a concentration about twice that of the plasma and greater than that of sea water. Observed volumes of flow are sufficiently large to make it clear that the rectal gland can remove from the blood relatively large amounts of sodium chloride, and presumably this is its function.

A study of the peripheral nerves of the earthworm shows that one pair of nerve trunks arise from the lateral regions of the cerebral ganglion, one pair from near the lateral, and two pairs from the ventral region of the circumpharyngeal connectives. These supply, in the order given, the prostomium, segment 1 and segment 2. Segment 3 and each succeeding segment, except the last, are supplied with three pairs of nerve trunks which arise from the nerve cord in the segment concerned. None of the nerve trunks of the body was observed to send branches to more than one segment, which shows that they are segmental in origin and distribution. The anterior portion of the central nervous system has undergone caudal migration and modification of its ganglia. Some of the nerve trunks have disappeared through atrophy, while others have become fused at their bases. A subepidermal nerve plexus is found at the base of the epidermal cells from which nerve fibers pass to the internal nerve net and to the central nervous system. This plexus also sends intercellular and intracellular fibers into the epidermis. The so‐called sense cells of the epidermis appear to be the cell bodies of sensory neurones which send nerve fibers to the ganglia of the central nervous system, where they form synaptic connections with other neurones. There is an enteric nerve plexus in the wall of the alimentary canal which is directly connected to the circumpharyngeal connectives.

No abstract