LIFE OF ALBANY HANCOCK. xxiii 



complete description,, with plates, of the extension of this 

 system to all the viscera in Doris was given. Up to 1850 

 no sympathetic nervous system had been described in any 

 animal below the Vertebrata, and it was, therefore, with 

 peculiar pleasure and care that the ramifications of this 

 system were traced out and laid down. Its presence in these 

 creatures goes to show that the Mollusca are more closely 

 related than the Articulata to the Vertebrata, and that, there- 

 fore, the transition from the Mollusca to these last is not quite so 

 abrupt as has been believed. 



During the period from 1845 to 1855 there appeared the 

 justly celebrated ' Monograph of the British Nudibranchiate 

 Mollusca, with figures of the species,' by Joshua Alder and 

 Albany Hancock. This work, published by the Ray Society, 

 soon gained for its authors a more than European reputation. 

 The descriptions of external characters and the classification 

 were the joint work of Alder and Hancock; most of the 

 drawings of the species and the whole of those of the anatomy 

 were by Hancock alone. 



The beauty of the drawings and the delicacy of the 

 colouring exhibited in this work it would be difficult to 

 surpass, and the anatomical details are represented with a 

 perfect fidelity to nature. Albany rapidly surmounted the 

 difficulties attendant on the delicate dissection of microscopi- 

 cally-minute parts, in which the breath, even, has to be held 

 and regulated, and the hand educated in the execution of the 

 smallest possible movements ; and he readily gained an 

 extensive acquaintance with the principles and details of 

 Comparative Anatomy. 



The Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club was instituted in tin- 

 year 1846, and one of its foremost and best supporters was 

 Albany H;incock. The second paper in its ' Transactions/ 

 that " On the Existence of Limn or i a terebrans at the Mouth of 

 the Tyne," was by him. He afterwards contributed papers 

 " On the Boring Apparatus of the Carnivorous Gasteropods 

 and of the Stone- and Wood-boring bivalves;' 5 "On the 

 Boring of the Mollusca, as Teredo, Xylopliuga, Pholas, etc., 

 into Rocks, etc. ; " and " On the Excavating Po\\ ers of certain 

 Sponges, as C lion a; with descriptions of several new species 

 and an allied generic form." He continued his contributions 

 to the ' Transactions ' up to the year of his decease. On more 

 than one occasion, and after much solicitation, he modestly 

 declined the honour of being elected President of the Club. 



After the completion of the Monograph of the Nudibran- 

 chiata he worked alone on " The Organization of the Brachi- 

 opoda/' and his essay with this title, in the 'Philosophical 



