X THE HISTORY OF THIS WORK. 



' But it is a thousand pities that the work remains unpub- 

 lished,, and if anything- can be done, the MSS., so far as I am 

 concerned^ are absolutely at the disposal of Hancock's repre- 

 sentatives. I shall be obliged if you will kindly communicate 

 the substance of what I have said. 



" With my regards to Mr. John Hancock, 



" I am, yours very truly, 



" T. H. HUXLEY/' 



Shortly after this the MSS. and drawings were 

 returned. These, after the deaths of Mr. John Han- 

 cock and Dr. Embleton, were placed under the care of 

 the Committee of the Natural History Society of Efew- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, where they have remained until last 

 year, when, the work having again been accepted by 

 the Council of the Ray Society, they were at my 

 request sent for publication at last by this Society. 



Though so many years have elapsed, the value of 

 the Monograph is great, since (1st) it contains full 

 descriptions with illustrations of the Tunicata of our 

 fauna as known up to the time of the death of the 

 authors ; (2nd) because many of the new species had 

 been only briefly diagnosed, and the fuller descrip- 

 tions and figures of these which are now given will 

 enable them to be better known and understood ; and 

 (3rd) it is especially desirable that the full account 

 of Hancock's investigations should be published 

 together with a portion of his beautiful drawings. 



The chief difficulty from the first has been in relation 

 to these drawings, which are extremely numerous. 

 All Hancock's admirable work was effected with the 

 aid of such simple means as scalpels and needles. 

 Section-cutting and the use of chemical reagents were 

 in his day unknown. Our author's custom was to 

 gradually and most carefully dissect the animal, and to 

 continually make new drawings as each fresh mem- 



