EDITORIAL ARTICLE. 193 



ed that the arguments for and against the parasitic hypothesis are equally 

 balanced. We admit that in some particulars Madame Power's descrip- 

 tive details are open to objection, as being sometimes evidently inaccurate ; 

 but this, to a great extent, may be explained as a consequence re- 

 sulting from her want of physiological knowledge, and partly from a very 

 natural wish on her part not to appear ignorant of things which she sup- 

 posed every body knew. Fortunately it happens that some of the more 

 important facts bearing upon the question at issue, although originating 

 in the researches of this lady, do not rest upon her individual testimony 

 as the sole authority for their existence. M. Sander Rang has fully con- 

 firmed all that she has stated of the manner in which the poulp applies 

 its palmated or sail-arms to the keel and sides of the shell ; and Profes- 

 sor Owen, at a recent meeting of the Zoological Society, communi- 

 cated the result of his own observations upon the materials placed at his 

 disposal by Madame Power. In a series of ova exhibiting various stages 

 of developement, he found in those most advanced the contained embryo 

 having the distinction of body and head established ; the pigment of the 

 eyes, the ink in the ink-bladder, the pigmental spots on the skin were dis- 

 tinctly apparent ; the siphon, the beak, and the arms were also discrimi- 

 nated by a low microscopic power ; but no trace of the shell. Now Ma- 

 dame Power has uniformly asserted that the young poulp is excluded naked 

 from the egg, although fully cognisant of Poli's belief that he had de- 

 tected the embryo-shell within the ovum ; and the result of Prof. Owen's 

 examination is therefore strong presumptive evidence in favor of her 

 statement. With respect to the supposed exception among the testace- 

 ous Mollusca which the young of the poulp would form, (granting the 

 condition of its naked exclusion from the egg), and the consequent infe- 

 rence which might be drawn in favor of the parasitic theory, Mr. Owen 

 observed that the mode of the development of the ova of Mollusca has not 

 been investigated even to the amount of one per cent., so that the data 

 are far too imperfect for arriving at even a general law respecting the 

 existence of the shell within the ovum, and much less one so precise as 

 almost to prohibit the possibility of a cephalopod that is born naked se- 

 creting a shell some days afterwards. The collection of argonauts with 

 the respective animals brought by Madame Power on her present visit to 

 this country, consists of twenty specimens in all stages of growth. In 

 every case Mr. Owen found that the position of the cephalopod with re- 

 spect to the shell corresponded to that in the pearly nautilus; in the 

 young specimens the body of the cephalopod was exactly adapted to the 

 whole cavity of the shell, but was withdrawn from the apex in those of a 

 larger size, and the deserted place filled with the mucous secretion or ova 



