Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/724

 cava passing backwards ventrally from the cephalic region and dividing into two afferent branchial veins, each of which receives a pallial and an abdominal vein. Each of these afferent branchial vessels is enclosed in the cavity of a renal organ and is covered externally by the glandular tissue which forms the excretory part of the “kidney” (fig. 29). Each afferent vessel is expanded into a contractile branchial heart, which is provided with a glandular appendage. The latter corresponds to the glandular masses which are attached to the afferent branchial veins in Nautilus, and to the pericardial glands of other Molluscs.

Coelom.—The coelom forms a large sac with a constriction between the anterior or pericardial division and the posterior or genital division, and it is produced into lateral diverticula which contain the branchial hearts; but in the Octopoda the pericardial division is suppressed and the genital division communicates by long ducts with sacs containing the appendages of the branchial hearts. The renal sacs communicate with the pericardium by pores near the external renal apertures; in the Octopoda the reno-pericardial openings are in the capsules of the branchial hearts. The genital ducts pass from the genital coelom to the exterior. They are paired in female Oigopsida and Octopoda except Cirrhoteuthidae, but only the left persists in the males of all Dibranchiata, and in the female Myopsida.

In the oviduct is a glandular enlargement, and in addition to this the females are provided with the so-called nidamental glands which are developed on the somatic wall of the pallial cavity, one on each side of the rectum, except in certain Oigopsida (Enoploteuthis, Cranchia, Leachia) and in the Octopoda, in which these organs are absent. The latter fact is related to the habit of the majority of the Octopoda of guarding or “incubating” their eggs, which have little protective covering. In the other cases the eggs are surrounded by a tough gelatinous elastic material secreted by the nidamental glands.

The vas deferens is at first narrow and convoluted, then dilates into a vesicula seminalis at the end of which is a glandular diverticulum called the prostate. By the vesicula and the prostate the spermatophores are formed. These have a structure similar to those of Nautilus, and in the Octopoda may be as much as 50 mm. in length. Beyond the prostate the duct opens into a large terminal reservoir which has been called Needham’s sac, and in which the spermatophores are stored.

Nervous System and Sense-Organs.—The figures (30, 31, 32) representing the nerve-centres of Octopus serve to exhibit the disposition