I there found that both in the male and in the female the genital ducts on
each side terminate in a common chamber or uterus, which underlies the
whole length of the operculum, and opens to the exterior in the middle
line, as shown in Fig. 76. In transverse section, this uterus has the
appearance shown in Fig. 86, _i.e._ it is a large tube, evidently
expansible, lined with a chitinous layer and epithelial cells belonging to
the chitinogenous layer, except in two symmetrical places, where the
uniformity of the uterine wall is interrupted by two large, remarkable
glandular structures. The structure of these glands is better shown by
means of sagittal sections. They are composed of very long, wedge-shaped
cells, each of which possesses a large, round nucleus at the basal end of
the cell (Fig. 87). These cells are arranged in bundles of about eight to
ten, which are separated from each other by connective tissue, the apex of
each conical bundle being directed into the cavity of the uterus; where
this brush-like termination of the cells reaches the surface, the chitinous
layer is absent, so that this layer is, on surface view, seen (Fig. 88
(_b_)) to be pitted with round holes over that part of the internal surface
of the uterus where these glands are situated. Each of these holes
represents the termination of one of these cone-shaped wedges of cells. If
the section is cut across at right angles to the axis of these cones, then
its appearance is represented in Fig. 88 (_a_), and shows well the
arrangement of the blocks of cells, separated from each other by connective
tissue. When the section passes through the basal part of the cones, and
only in that case, then the nuclei of the cells appear, often in
considerable numbers in one section, as {205}is seen in Fig. 89. In Fig. 88
the section shows at _b_ the holes in the chitin in which the cones
terminate, and then a series of layers of sections through the cones
further and further away from their apices.
These conical groups of long cells, represented in Fig. 87, form on each
side of the uterus a gland, which is continuous along its whole length, and
thus forms a line of secreting surface on each side, just as in the
corresponding arrangement of the glandular structures in the thyroid of
Ammocoetes. This uterus and glandular arrangement is found in both sexes;
the gland is, however, more developed in the male than in the female
scorpion.
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--TRANSVERSE SECTION THROUGH THE BASAL PART OF THE
UTERINE GLANDS OF THE SCORPION.]
The resemblance between the structure of the thyroid of Ammocoetes and the
uterus of the scorpion is most striking, except in two respects, viz. the
nature of the lining of the non-glandular part of the cavity--in the one
case ciliated, in the other chitinous--and the place of exit of the cavity,
the thyroid of Ammocoetes opening into the respiratory chamber, while the
uterus of Scorpio opens direct to the exterior.
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