458 Miscellaneous. 



admitting the possibility of the Starfishes having heen drifted by 

 currents, for argument's sake, the character of the fact would be in 

 no way affected. The structure and habits of the Echinoderms 

 generally are too well known, however, to render such a mode of 

 accounting for their presence in the position referred to possible. 



On careful dissection, I found no appreciable anatomical difference 

 between these Ophiocomce and the species frequenting shoal waters. 

 The deposit on which they rested consists of Globigerince y so pure as 

 to constitute 95 per cent, of the entire mass. Their occurrence 

 where the Globigerince are to be met with both in greatest quantity 

 and purity, together with the circumstance that in the stomach of 

 the Ophiocomce the Globigerince were detected in abundance as ali- 

 mentary matter, corroborates the evidence I have obtained from other 

 facts as to the normal habitat of the latter organisms being on the 

 immediate surface-layer of the deeper oceanic deposits, and not in 

 the substance of the superincumbent waters. At the same time it 

 substantiates the truth of the Starfishes having been captured on 

 their natural feeding-ground. 



I also detected, in a sounding made at 1913 fathoms, a number 

 of small tubes varying in length from -^th to ^th of an inch, and 

 about a line in diameter, which, on being viewed under the microscope, 

 turned out to be almost entirely built up of young Globigerina- shells 

 cemented side by side, just as we find to be the case in the tubular 

 cells of some of the Cephalobranchiate Annelids, where sandy or 

 shell particles are employed in their formation. There can hardly 

 be a doubt, therefore, that some minute creature, probably an An- 

 nelid, lives down at this enormous depth, and feeds on the soft parts 

 of the Foraminifera, whilst he houses himself with their calcareous 

 shells. As yet, I have been unable to determine the nature of these 

 creatures, but hope to be enabled to succeed on a more lengthened 

 survey of the material in which they occur. 



Lastly, I would mention having met with the minute bodies termed 

 " Coccoliths " by Professor Huxley. They occur in vast numbers, 

 associated with larger cell-like bodies on the surface of which Coc- 

 coliths are arranged at regular intervals, so as to lead to the inference 

 that the latter are in reality given off from the former in some way. 

 The larger cell-bodies and the Coccoliths on them are imbedded in a 

 gelatinous envelope. The presence of these organisms in largest 

 quantity in those deposits in which the Globigerince occur alive in 

 the greatest profusion and utmost state of purity, would also seem 

 indicative of their being a larval condition of the latter. 



I remain, Gentlemen, very faithfully yours, 



G. C. Wallich. 



Dr. Hilgard's " Organotaxis." 



The &-priori or transcendental method in anatomy has evidently 

 strong charms for some of our transatlantic brethren. In the 

 ' Transactions' of the Academy of Science of St. Louis for 1859, vol.i. 

 no. 3. p, 416, there is a paper by one of the curators, Dr. Theodore 

 C. Hilgard, M.D., " on Organotaxis," in which the dreamy and 

 imaginative Oken is out-Okened. One good effect of this curious 



