The anterior group of tubular muscles (_mt_1_, Figs. 116, 117) belonging to the same segment as the metastomal bar must now be taken into consideration. Very different is their origin to that of the posterior group: they arise close up against the eye, and have given rise to Kupffer's and Hatschek's misconception that the superior oblique muscle of the eye arises from a part of the velar musculature. Naturally, as Neal has pointed out, they have nothing to do with the eye-muscles; the superior oblique muscle is plainly in its true place entirely apart from these velar muscles, which form the foremost group of the segmental tubular muscles. They pass into the anterior part of the velar folds and run round to the ventral side just in the same way as does the posterior group. This anterior group of tubular muscles represents the veno-pericardial muscle of the segment immediately in front of the opercular, _i.e._ the metastomal segment, and is the foremost of these veno-pericardial muscles. Its presence shows that the velar folds, formed as they were by the breaking down of the septum, are in reality part of two segments, viz. the opercular and the metastomal, which have fused together in their basal parts, and by such fusion have caused the inter-relationship between the VIIth and Vth nerves, so apparent in the anatomy of the vertebrate cranial nerves. A further piece of evidence that this anterior portion of the velum {301}belongs to the same segment as the lower lip is the fact that in addition to the tubular muscles a single ordinary striated muscle is found in the velum which, like the muscles of the lower lip, is innervated by this same mandibular nerve. This muscle is attached laterally to the muco-cartilage of the metastomal bar (_sk_2_) at its junction with the muco-cartilage of the lower lip, and spreads out into a number of strands which are attached at intervals along the whole length of the free anterior edge of the velum. It is the only non-tubular muscle belonging to the velum, and by its contraction it draws the anterior portions of the velar folds apart from each other, and so opens the slit between them, through which the food and mud must pass. Clearly from its position it does not belong to the original tergo-coxal group of muscles as do those of the lower lip; it must have been one of the intrinsic muscles of the metastoma itself.