OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARGONAUT. 153 



ing Member, I am encouraged still farther to make my re- 

 searches prove useful. My principal aim, which was to prove 

 that the argonaut, like other Testacea, had the power of form- 

 ing its own shell, has been fully attained by successful expe- 

 riments, the results of which I have not failed to send to you, 

 whether proved by the broken shells mended by the molluscs 

 themselves ; or by means of the shells and animals preserved 

 in spirits ; or by the eggs and young poulps in different 

 stages of developement ; or finally by means of coloured 

 drawings : and you are now in possession of all that I am 

 able to explain. 



I have sent you other notices respecting the physiology and 

 history of this mollusc, having thought them worthy of your 

 study and attention ; and if they meet the approbation of men 

 like you, illustrious in science, I intend to institute many other 

 researches, not only upon the argonaut, but on other mol- 

 luscs, upon which I have already commenced some experi- 

 ments to prove whether any of the parts of the animal are 

 capable of being reproduced, and which I shall have the 

 honour before long to submit to your attention. 



ADDITIONAL REMARKS. l 



Madame Power commences her account of this new series 

 of observations on the argonaut, by stating that they were 

 made on her return to Sicily after a visit to London, where, 

 having exhibited her collection of argonauts to Mr. Gray and 

 Mr. Charlesworth, she was made acquainted with the true 

 nature of the little parasite 2 which she had previously mista- 

 ken for the young of the argonaut itself. Madame Power 

 then proceeds to say, — " The vermicule believed by me to be 

 a poulp might have misled others better versed than myself 

 in Malacology ; for it had two rows of suckers along its bo- 

 dy, and resembled one of the arms of the poulp : it is 

 not, therefore, to be wondered at that I mistook it for a 

 poulp, because many animals at their birth present one form, 

 and another when fully developed ; and besides, from the ex- 

 treme irritability and delicacy of the poulp, it is not so easy 

 for the naturalist to examine it. Having, in fact, seen these 



1 " Nuove Osservazione sulle uovo del Polpo dell' Argonauta Argo. Di 

 Madame Jeannette Power, Soeia Corresp. dell' Acad. Gioenia, &c." 



2 The specimens alluded to by Madame Power, preserved in spirits, were 

 by that lady placed in the hands of the Editor of this Journal, and 

 first examined by Prof. Owen, who, in the supposed young poulps, imme- 

 diately recognised the parasitic genus Hectocolt/tus of Cuvier. — Ed. 



R 3 



