When the animal is turned on its left-hand side and the mantle-chamber widely opened, the gill being turned over to the left, a part of the kidney is seen beneath the skin between the attachment of the gill and the right parapodium (fig. 39). On examination this is found to be the under surface of the posterior limb of the gland, the upper surface of which has just been described as lying beneath the shell. In the posterior third of this portion, close to that edge which is adjacent to the base of the gill, is the external opening (fig. 39, o).
When the pericardium is cut open from above in an animal otherwise entire, the anterior face of the kidney is seen forming the posterior wall of the pericardial chamber; on the deep edge of this face, a little to the left of the attachment of the auricle to the floor of the pericardium, is seen a depression; this depression contains the opening from the pericardium into the kidney.
To complete the account of the relations of the organ: the right anterior corner can be seen superficially in the wall of the mantle-chamber above the gill. Thus the base of the gill passes in a slanting direction across the right-hand side of the kidney, the posterior end being dorsal to the apex of the gland, and the anterior end ventral to the right-hand corner.
| Fig. 41.—Gonad, and accessory glands and ducts of Aplysia. (Lankester.) |
| i, Ovo-testis. h, Hermaphrodite duct. g, Albuminiparous gland. f, Vesicula seminalis. k, Opening of the albuminiparous gland into the hermaphrodite duct. e, Hermaphrodite duct (uterine portion). b, Vaginal portion of the uterine duct. c, Spermatheca. d, Its duct. a, Genital pore. |
As so great a part of the whole surface of the kidney lies adjacent to external surfaces of the body, the remaining part which faces the internal organs is small; it consists of the left part of the under surface; it is level with the floor of the pericardium, and lies over the globular mass formed by the liver and convoluted intestine.
Thus the renal organ of Aplysia is shown to conform to the Molluscan type. The heart lying within the adjacent pericardium has the usual form, a single auricle and ventricle. The vascular system is not extensive, the arteries soon ending in the well-marked spongy tissue which builds up the muscular foot, parapodia, and dorsal body-wall.
The alimentary canal commences with the usual buccal mass; the lips are cartilaginous, but not armed with horny jaws, though these are common in other Opisthobranchs; the lingual ribbon is multidenticulate, and a pair of salivary glands pour in their secretion. The oesophagus expands into a curious gizzard, which is armed internally with large horny processes, some broad and thick, others spinous, fitted to act as crushing instruments. From this we pass to a stomach and a coil of intestine embedded in the lobes of a voluminous liver; a caecum of large size is given off near the commencement of the intestine. The liver opens by two ducts into the digestive tract.
The generative organs lie close to the coil of intestine and liver, a little to the left side. When dissected out they appear as represented in fig. 41. The essential reproductive organ or gonad consists of both ovarian and testicular cells (see fig. 42). It is an ovo-testis. From it passes a common or hermaphrodite duct, which very soon becomes entwined in the spire of a gland—the albuminiparous gland. The latter opens into the common duct at the point k, and here also is a small diverticulum of the duct f. Passing on, we find not far from the genital pore a glandular spherical body (the spermatheca c) opening by means of a longish duct into the common duct, and then we reach the pore (fig. 39, k). Here the female apparatus terminates. But when the male secretion of the ovo-testis is active, the seminal fluid passes from the genital pore along the spermatic groove (fig. 39) to the penis, and is by the aid of that eversible muscular organ introduced into the genital pore of a second Aplysia, whence it passes into the spermatheca, there to await the activity of the female element of the ovo-testis of this second Aplysia. After an interval of some days—possibly weeks—the ova of the second Aplysia commence to descend the hermaphrodite duct; they become enclosed in a viscid secretion at the point where the albuminiparous gland opens into the duct intertwined with it; and on reaching the point where the spermathecal duct debouches they are impregnated by the spermatozoa which escape now from the spermatheca and meet the ova.
| Fig. 42.—Follicles of the hermaphrodite gonads of Euthyneurous Gastropods. A, of Helix; B, of Eolis; a, ova; b, developing spermatozoa; c, common efferent duct. |
| Fig. 43.—Nervous system of Aplysia, as a type of the long-looped Euthyneurous condition. The untwisted visceral loop is lightly shaded. (After Spengel.) |
| ce, Cerebral ganglion. pl, Pleural ganglion. pe, Pedal ganglion. ab. sp, Abdominal ganglion which represents also the supra-intestinal ganglion of Streptoneura and gives off the nerve to the osphradium (olfactory organ) o, and another to an unlettered so-called “genital” ganglion. The buccal nerves and ganglia are omitted. |