lii ANNUAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



an Echinoderm, which it very much resembles. A special 

 interest attaches to this discovery, as it will by many be re- 

 garded as confirming the opinion originally promulgated by 

 Huxley that the Echinoderms and Scolecids form together a 

 peculiar natural group (" sub-kingdom Annuloida") of the an- 

 imal kingdom; the evidence, however, is not yet regarded as 

 conclusive by those who have heretofore advocated an oppo- 

 site view, the resemblance being claimed to be superficial, 

 and not based on true homological similarity. 



A valuable paper has been published on the embryology 

 of the Gordius, or hair-worm, in which the obscurity in re- 

 gard to the successive transformations of this animal has 

 been measurably cleared up. The announcement made a 

 year or two ago by Professor Wyman that the cerebral cav- 

 ity of the water-turkey (Plotus) is always inhabited by a mass 

 of entozoa worms belonging to the genus Filaria is con- 

 firmed by him in later communications. 



The Mollusks have received the customary share of atten- 

 tion from students and describers of new species, but nothing 

 of special interest seems to have been published. We may, 

 however, allude to the researches of Morse on the embryology 

 of the Brachiopods (see p. 271). Among the fossil "forms, not 

 the least interesting made known are two species obtained 

 from the carboniferous rocks of Illinois by Braclley, and re- 

 ferred by him to the Pulmonates, under the names Papa Ver- 

 milionensis and Anomphalus Meekii the last, originally re- 

 ferred to the EotellldcB by Meek, has been transferred to the 

 Helicidce by Bradley. If these forms have been correctly 

 identified, the addition is important,' as only two species have 

 been previously described from the Nova Scotian carbonifer- 

 ous ; it is right to add that the discovery has not yet been 

 verified by other naturalists, and is open to suspicion in con- 

 nection with the' type of Anomjihalus. 



The question lately raised by Professor Morse as to the 

 systematic position of the Brachiopods has also continued to 

 be discussed, this gentleman maintaining that they are in 

 reality worms, while nearly all other writers insist on keep- 

 ing them among the mollusks. 



An important work on the American east coast Mollusks 

 is announced as about to be commenced by Mr. Tryon, of 

 Philadelphia, to embrace colored figures of all the species. 



