Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Volume 36 ) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1894. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... On Moniligaster grandis, A. G. B., from the Nilgiris, S. India; together with Descriptions of other Species of the Genus Moniligaster. By Alfred Cibbs Bourne, D.Sc.Lond., Professor of Biology in the Presidency College, Madras. "-_J With Plates 22--28. External Characters. Colour and Size.--The general appearance, colour, and size may be judged from figs. 1 and 2. An average-sized worm which I measured was 590 mm. long when living and at rest, 270 mm. when fully contracted, and 1080 mm. when stretched out after having been (purposely) badly preserved. The most striking feature in the living worm is the great activity of the twelve or fourteen most anterior somites as compared with the extreme sluggishness of the greater portion of the body. When removed from the ground the animal seems to have very little control over all the hinder portion of its body. The body-wall is here very thin and weak, and often becomes ruptured in specimens which are kept in captivity. When this happens the gut instantly bulges out at the point of rupture.1 1 Great differences exist among earthworms with regard to what happens when the body-wall is injured. Some worms, like M. grandis, will live on for a long time with a portion of the gut bulging out, while others, e. g. Perionyx saltans, will, on receiving the slightest injury to the body-wall, breek at once into two pieces. The body-wall behaves in some cases as though vOl. 36, PART 3.--NEW SER. Y There is very little pigment in the body-wall, which in the greater portion of the animal's length is very transparent, but which becomes opaque at the two extremities. The opacity is due even here rather to the greater amount of muscle present than to the presence of pigment. What little pigment there is occurs in the connective tissue wh...