Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012
The calciferous glands of earthworms are well-known structures, which occur under a variety of forms, and have been the subject of a considerable amount of research. They are appendages of the oesophagus which occur in different segments in different genera and species; and the usual view of their morphological nature, put forward by Beddard (l) in 1895, and for long generally adopted, is that their epithelium is the oesophageal epithelium thrown into various degrees of folding. Beddard describes these different degrees in a number of different forms.