A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2): The Lepadidae; Or, Pedunculated CirripedesDarwin, Charles
Science
A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2): The Lepadidae; Or, Pedunculated Cirripedes
Darwin, Charles
Cirripedia; Lepadidae
_Alimentary Canal._--The oesophagus is of considerable length: it is
formed of strong, transparent, much folded membrane, continuous with the
outer integuments, and moulted with them: it is surrounded by corium,
and as already stated, by numerous muscles: at its lower end it expands
into a bell, with the edges reflexed, and sometimes sinuous: this bell
lies within the stomach, and keeps the upper broad end expanded.
According to the less or greater distance of the mouth from the adductor
muscle, the oesophagus runs in a more or less parallel course to the
abdominal surface between the first and succeeding pairs of cirri, and
enters the stomach more or less obliquely. In Ibla alone, it passes
exteriorly to, and over the adductor scutorum muscle. The stomach lies
in a much curved, almost doubled course; it is often a little
constricted where most bent; it is broadest at the upper end, and here,
in Lepas and Conchoderma, there are some deep branching cæca; in the
latter of these two genera, the whole surface is, in addition, pitted in
transverse lines. The stomach is coated by small, opaque, pulpy,
slightly arborescent glands, believed to be hepatic; these are arranged
in longitudinal lines, in all the genera, except in Alepas, in which
they are transverse and reticulated: the whole stomach is thus coated.
There is, also, a coating of excessively delicate, longitudinal and
transverse muscles without striæ. The rectum varies in length, extending
inwards from the anus to between the bases of the second and fifth pair
of cirri: it is narrow, and formed of much folded transparent membrane,
resembling the oesophagus, continuous with the outer integuments, with
which it is periodically moulted. The anus is a small longitudinal slit,
in the triangular piece of membrane representing the abdomen, let in
between the last thoracic tergal arches, as already mentioned under the
head of the Metamorphoses; it lies almost between the caudal appendages,
and opens on the dorsal surface. Within the stomach, there can generally
be plainly seen, in accordance with the period of digestion when the
specimen was taken, a thin, yet strong, perfectly transparent epithelial
membrane, not exhibiting under the highest power of the microscope any
structure: it enters the branching cæca, and extends from the edge of
the bell of the oesophagus to the commencement of the closed rectum, and
consequently terminates in a point: it consists of chitine, like the
outer integuments of the animal, and by placing the whole body in
caustic potash, I have dissolved the outer coats of the stomach, and
seen the bag open at its upper end, perfectly preserved, floating in the
middle of the body, and full of the debris of the food. In most of the
specimens which I have examined, preserved in spirits of wine, this
epithelial lining was some little way distant and separate from the
coats of the stomach; and hence was thought by M. Martin St. Ange to be
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