HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



125 



no means disagreeable odour ; unlike anything and 

 everything else except " iodoform," which it resembles 

 precisely. This odour is very tenacious, specimens 

 that have been in four or five changes of alcohol still 

 retaining it strongly, while on the hand that has 

 touched either the animal or its mucus it will resist 

 hot water and Pears' soap to the third and fourth 

 application. 



On the subject of its internal anatomy I am not 

 biologist enough to enter. The smaller species are 

 worked up in full detail in Huxley, Claus, and 

 other text books on invertebrate zoology, and the 

 particulars of these apply no doubt to the species 

 before us as well ; but the following details of its 

 outward form may be of interest. 



The proboscis, when at rest is of the form shown 

 in the figure, and is not retractile ; on the other hand 

 it can be extended to double this length, not by a 

 process of eversion, as in the Nemerteans and Anne- 

 lids, but by simple elongation, until it assumes a 

 tapered point. In section, the anterior portion is 

 broadly triangulate, the lateral angles forming very 

 soft and pliable lobes which sometimes irregularly 

 fold over the dorsal side until they meet. 



Medially — on both dorsal and ventral sides — there 

 runs a delicate thread, which appears, especially on 

 the dorsal side, to be at a much greater tension than 

 the rest of the structure, causing the lateral lobes to 

 assume a somewhat waved or "puckered" arrange- 

 ment. 



From the hepatic region to within six or seven 

 inches of the anal extremity the section is sub- 

 cylindrical, and here gradually the medial threads 

 become nearly obsolete, being only traceable as very 

 fine lines. Here also the transverse " crenation," 

 (or " pseudo- segmentation," if I may invent a term) 

 becomes irregular and assumes a kind of basket-work 

 pattern. 



Beyond this, and on the part that I have mentioned 

 as free from sand and gelatinous, the threads again 

 appear, that on the dorsal side deeply sunk in a groove 

 giving the section at this part as oval, with a deep 

 emargination on one side, and the transverse "crena- 

 tion " again becomes regular, each line being traceable 

 on the whole circumference. 



Referring again to colour, I have found some 

 specimens in which the anterior part was of a lemon 

 colour, and others of a brick red ; but the brown, 

 green, and creamy white parts I have not found to 

 vary. 



Of its habits I am not prepared to say anything, 

 they seem to be altogether of a passive description. 

 Limp and apparently almost lifeless, it makes no 

 expression of the emotions when turned out of its 

 home, nor even when put into ajar of spirits of wine. 

 Of great length and extreme tenderness, it is a 

 puzzle to me how it maintains its integrity if it travels 

 at all, among the sharp sand and broken shell amidst 

 which it dwells. 



That it does not habitually come to the surface of the 

 sand is plain, for on the surface no marks are seen 

 except such as are clearly traceable to the Synaptre 

 and Eunices, who are its congeners. Dr. Kcehler 

 also mentions that he has sought in vain for any mark 

 that would indicate its burrow. 



No doubt the majority of the readers of SciENCE- 

 GOSSIP are aware of the interest that centres around 

 the curious genus " Balanoglossus," and how, re- 

 garding its place in nature, the doctors disagree. 



How embryology, "ever the surest guide," relegates 

 it in turn to the Echinoderms, the Molluscs and the 

 Tunicates, while, to crown the complication, Balano- 

 glossus in adult life assumes an annelidan form but 

 couples with it "gill clefts" and other details that 

 pertain by right only to embryo vertebrates. The 

 inference from this is well explained in the following 

 quotation from Wilson's " Chapters on Evolution" : — 



" There seems little reason to doubt that this 

 curious animal is a survival of a once widely repre- 

 sented type which to-day exhibits decline and decay 

 whilst preserving for us the important characters of a 

 common ancestor of several existing groups of animals." 



J. SlNEL. 

 Jersey, April 16th, 188S. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



OTHER SUNS THAN OURS, by R. A. 

 Proctor (London: W. H. Allen & Co.). 

 This is, perhaps, the best series of " Essays on 

 Popular Astronomy " Mr. Proctor has yet issued, 

 which is saying a good deal. They are all written 

 in the polished, terse, and yet lucid English of 

 which Mr. Proctor is master ; and they set forth in a 

 delightful manner the newest information and gener- 

 alisations on leading astronomical and correlated 

 subjects. The leading chapters are devoted to 

 "The New Star in Andromeda," "The Birth of 

 Worlds," "William Herschel's Star Surveys," 

 "Photographing Fifteen Million Stars," "Figure 

 of the Milky Way in Space," "The Sidereal System 

 Fathomless," "Suns and Meteors," "Comets and 

 Meteors," "Whence came the Comets," "A New 

 Theory of Sun-spots," "Two Sun-like Planets," 

 "The Great Red Spot on Jupiter," "A Dead 

 World," " A Zone of Worlds," " Saturn and its 

 System," &c. 



The Story of Creation, by Edward Clodd (London : 

 Longmans). Another of Mr. Clodd's charming 

 treatises— rather summaries — of what the scientific 

 and philosophical world is doing and thinking about. 

 To intelligent men of business, scholars, and others 

 who have not sufficient leisure to undertake the 

 enormous labour of wading through the literature of 

 the Theory of Evolution, this book comes as a 

 godsend. In a brief and handy compass we have a 

 complete exposition of that theory. The laws of the 



