en. il] BARNACLES. 41 



which differed so much from all other Cirripedes that I had 

 to form a new suborder for its sole reception. Lately an 

 allied burrowing genus has been found on the shores of 

 Portugal. To understand the structure of my new Cirri- 

 pede I had to examine and dissect many of the common 

 forms ; and this gradually led me on to take up the whole 

 group. I worked steadily on the subject for the next eight 

 years, and ultimately published two thick volumes,* describ- 

 ing all the known living species, and two thin quartos on 

 the extinct species. I do not doubt that Sir E. Lytton Bul- 

 wer had me in his mind when he introduced in one of his 

 novels a Professor Long, who had written two huge volumes 

 on limpets. 



Although I was employed during eight years on this 

 work, yet I record in my diary that about two years out of 

 this time was lost by illness. On this account I went in 

 1848 for some months to Malvern for hydropathic treat- 

 ment, which did me much good, so that on my return home 

 I was able to resume work. So much was I out of health 

 that when my dear father died on November 13th, 1848, I 

 was unable to attend his funeral or to act as one of his ex- 

 ecutors. 



My work on the Cirripedia possesses, I think, consid- 

 erable value, as besides describing several new and remark- 

 able forms, I made out the homologies of the various parts 

 I discovered the cementing apparatus, though I blun- 

 dered dreadfully about the cement glands and lastly I 

 proved the existence in certain genera of minute males 

 complemental to and parasitic on the hermaphrodites. This 

 latter discovery has at last been fully confirmed ; though 

 at one time a German writer was pleased to attribute the 

 whole account to my fertile imagination. The Cirripedes 

 form a highly varying and difficult group of species to class ; 

 and mv work was of considerable use to me, when I had to 

 discuss in the Origin of Species the principles of a natural 

 classification. Nevertheless, I doubt whether the work was 

 worth the consumption of so -much time. 



From September 1854 I devoted my whole time to ar- 

 ranging my huge pile of notes, to observing, and to experi- 

 menting in relation to the transmutation of species. Dur- 

 ing the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply impressed 

 by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil ani- 



* Published by the Kay Society. 



