352 Mr. G. Busk on the Priority of the Term Polyzoa 



XXXII. — 0/i the Priority of the Term Polyzoa /or the Ascidian 

 Polypes. By George Busk, F.R.S. &c. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



From the published Reports of the discussions, in the Zoological 

 Section of the British Association at Belfast, it would appear 

 that there is still some difference of opinion among naturalists 

 as to the proper appellation of the Ascidioid Zoophytes. As, 

 however, questions of this kind cannot be too soon definitively 

 settled, and as, in a Catalogue of the Marine Species in the 

 British Museum Collection, I have, not without consideration, 

 adopted the term ' Polyzoa,' you will perhaps allow me to say 

 a few words in justification of the use of that term instead of 

 'Bryozoa.' 



The question, at least as I understand it, appears to be of a 

 very simple nature and to admit of a very easy solution. 



Mr. J. V. Thompson's memoir, constituting the 5th Part or 

 Number of his 'Zoological Researches,' in which the term 

 'Polyzoa' is for the first time employed, and its explanation 

 given, was published in December, probably on the 1st of De- 

 cember 1830 — of this there can of course be no doubt. 



Ehrenberg's paper on the Corals of the Red Sea, in which 

 the term ' Bryozoa ' is first proposed, was read, or rather was in 

 part read, before the Berlin Academy on the 3rd of March 1831. 

 It was not, however, completed till December 1833, nor published 

 till February 1834. The former date, however, only is of con- 

 sequence here, because in June 1831, that Part of ' Symbolse 

 Physicse' containing the "Animalia evertebrata '' may be said 

 to have been published; — though it was probably not really 

 published till long afterwards. 



The evidence upon which these dates rest is short and satis- 

 factory. 



1. With respect to the Paper on the Red Sea Corals. This 

 paper is given in the volume of Berlin Reports, professing to 

 contain those papers which were read before the Academy in the 

 year 1832, and which volume was published in 1834. It appears 

 somewhat remarkable that Ehrenberg's paper is the only one 

 in the whole volume which was not read in 1832. It has for 

 its title, " Beitrage zur physiologischen Kenntniss der Corallen- 

 thiere im Allgemeinen, und besonders des Rothen Meeres, nebst 

 einem Versuche zur physiologischen Systematik derselben," and 

 bears the prefix, " (Gelesen in der Academic der Wissenschaften, 

 am Marz 3, 1831 — mit Zusatzen, gedruckt am 1 Dec. 1833)." 

 Allowing, therefore, the earliest date for the quasi publication of 



