Fig. 212.—Sipunculus nudus L., with introvert and head fully extended, laid open by an incision along the right side to show the internal organs. × 2. a, Mouth; b, ventral nerve-cord; c, heart; d, oesophagus; e, intestine; f, position of anus; g, tuft-like organs; h, right nephridium; i, retractor muscles; j, diverticulum on rectum. The spindle-muscle is seen overlying the rectum.
Vascular System.—On the dorsal surface of the anterior end of the alimentary canal lies a contractile vessel, usually termed the heart. It is a tube about an inch long, ending blindly behind, but opening in front into a ring-shaped space surrounding the mouth and partially enveloping the brain. From this ring-like vessel numerous branches are given off which pass into the fringe round the mouth, and probably the chief function of the heart is by its contraction to force fluid into this fringe, and so to extend it. The heart contains a corpusculated fluid. A similar but shorter tube is found on the ventral surface of the anterior end of the alimentary canal in the species in question; it also opens into the ring which surrounds the mouth.
Respiratory System.—There are no special respiratory organs, and it has long been a matter of dispute where the respiration of Gephyrea is carried on. The oxygenation of the blood probably takes place to some extent through the walls of the oral fringe, but the blood which receives its oxygen at this spot is limited in its distribution, and could only supply the brain and head. It seems probable that the remaining organs are supplied with oxygen by the fluid of the body-cavity, which bathes them on all sides. This might obtain its oxygen from the blood in the heart, or more probably, through the thin walls of the intestine, from the stream of water which is maintained by the ciliated groove described above. Quite recently a form—S. mundanus, var. branchiata—has been described[[472]] with thin-walled papillae covering parts of the skin. These papillae are full of corpuscles, and are regarded by their discoverer as branchiae.
Body-Cavity.—The pinkish fluid of the body-cavity contains numerous corpuscles, the products of the reproductive organs (either ova or spermatozoa), and some curious unicellular bodies known as "urns." The latter are shaped like a bowl with a ciliated rim, and are formed from the budding of certain cells on the walls of the dorsal blood-vessel.[[473]] Their function is unknown, but they resemble certain multicellular bodies found in the body-cavity of Phascolosoma. The generative cells found in the body-cavity are further considered below. The true corpuscles are either biconcave round corpuscles coloured with a chemical substance, the haemerythrin of Krukenberg, which apparently plays the same rôle as haemoglobin in other animals; or amoeboid corpuscles, which, though rare in Sipunculus, are very numerous in Phascolosoma.
Nervous System.—The nervous system of Sipunculus consists of a brain or cerebral ganglion, a circumoesophageal ring surrounding the gullet, and a ventral nerve-cord. The brain is a small bi-lobed nervous mass situated on the dorsal surface of the oesophagus, in the angle between the right and left dorsal retractor muscles close to their point of insertion. Numerous nerves arise from it, and pass to the fringe surrounding the mouth and to neighbouring parts. At the sides, the brain is continued into two stout nerve-cords which encircle the oesophagus, and meeting, fuse together in the median ventral line to form the ventral nerve-cord (Fig. 211). The latter is of the same diameter throughout, and shows no signs of segmentation; it is oval in section, and consists of small ganglion cells heaped up on the ventral surface, i.e. next the skin, and of numerous fibres situated dorsally. The cord gives off many nerves, which usually arise in pairs. These pass into the skin, and forming rings, run round the body, and give off finer nerves as they go.
The nerve-cord is supported by numerous strands of muscle which pass to it from the skin. These are especially long in the region where the introvert joins the trunk, and thus allow free play to the nerve-cord when the former is being protruded or retracted.
Sipunculus is not well provided with sense-organs, but in an animal which lives buried in sand we should not expect to find these very highly developed. On the introvert there are certain patches of epithelium bearing long stout cilia, which have been regarded as tactile in function, and there is a tubular infolding reaching the brain, which almost certainly has some sensory function. Ward[[474]] has termed this "the cerebral organ." It consists of a duct lined with ciliated cells, which opens to the exterior in the middle dorsal line outside the tentacular fringe. The duct leads down to the brain, and expands at its lower end into a saucer-shaped space, covering that portion of the brain where its substance is continuous with the external epithelium. In Phymosoma this cavity is produced into two finger-shaped processes, which are sunk into the brain and are lined by cells crowded with a dense black pigment.[[475]] They are probably rudimentary eyes, perhaps distinguishing only between darkness and light. The pits appear to be absent in Sipunculus nudus, but Andrews states they are found, although without pigment, in S. gouldii.[[476]]
Excretory System.—The excretory organs or "brown tubes" are typical nephridia, that is to say, they consist of tubes with glandular walls which open on the one side to the exterior, and on the other by means of a ciliated funnel-shaped opening into the body-cavity. In Gephyrea one wall of the tube is produced into a long diverticulum or sac which hangs down into the body-cavity, and is usually supported by muscle-fibres running to the body-wall. The lower end of the sac is broken up into a number of crypts or pits, lined by large glandular cells crowded with brown pigment. The pigment-granules are secreted into the cavity of the sac, and leave the body through the external opening; they probably consist of the nitrogenous excreta of the animal. The upper end of the sac, into which both the external and internal orifices open, is usually enlarged, and its walls are very muscular. As in so many other animals, the nephridia serve as ducts through which the reproductive cells leave the body of the parent.
Reproductive System.—The Gephyrea are bisexual. In Sipunculus the testes and ovaries are found in the same position in the two sexes, and are indistinguishable without microscopic investigation. They each consist of small ridges situated at the lower end of the ventral retractor muscles, just where the latter take their origin from the longitudinal muscles of the skin. At this level the cells which line the body-cavity on the inside of the skin are heaped up, and become modified in the one case into ova or eggs, and in the other into the mother-cells of the spermatozoa. This method of forming the reproductive organs from modified cells lining the body-cavity is very common in the higher animals; but it is seen in its simplest and least modified form in the Sipunculidae.